A new batch of homeless veterans hits the streets

This is Shameless!!!!

This is hearbreaking and inexcusable. It's a slap in the face to the people who fight to protect this country.

That is totally disgusting and our fine government at work here.

We owe our veterans more, but they're not going to get it. There's a class issue at work here--the veterans are not from the wealthy backgrounds that run politics these days.

Does our government have no shame...the heck with helping other countries..help our own

There's more to it than just giving them money or a place to live. They need decent medical and psychological support as well to get back into civilian life, but that costs a lot of money for good quality care.

As voting constituents, I haven't noticed, individually or as a group, any tangible support for them. We, Western progressive Humanity~ as a social structure, don't value our soldiers beyond rhetoric.

It's not our government that's to blame. We are~ when we don't honor them with anything more than empty words, when we don't let people know that what those soldiers do has value with more than a yellow ribbon magnet on our car or a "Support our Troops" banner.

We, as civilian citizens, ask for supreme sacrifices from those willing to be soldiers that go WAY beyond the physical risks, to the psychological ones, as well, and then leave them hanging high and dry. It's easy enough to drop the dead "heroes" in the ground and leave a potato salad on the doorstep for the family, but why aren't we SCREAMING for our elected officials to make good to the ones who come home outside of a body bag. Not just for these Afghanistan arena veterans, but for EVERY veteran.

We don't do much for the cops that try to keep us safe at home or clean up the ugly messes, or the firefighters, either. The ones who take the risks are almost unilaterally spit on by our society because they are inconvenient when they need something from us.

What do WE need to do to fix this problem?

I see beggars all the time, living near downtown. But I bet not all beggars are homeless, and most homeless stay far away from downtown.

It creeps me out that there's such an "underbelly" to our society.

It's a government problem, for sure. Individual citizens are too fractured in this huge society of 50 States to do it ourselves - to do something real.

As citizens we're good at setting up our churches - and those make great food shelves to help with things like that. But individual citizens aren't going to provide medical care, mental care, consistent food, and housing for those who are shell shocked.

This is a shame Peter and we need to do more.

With these sub zero temperatures, the homeless of Chicago start coming out of the woodwork and take advantage of the warming shelters. In fact, police have orders to transport anyone who asks to go to a warming shelter. Chicago has quite a huge number of homeless. It is difficult to grasp the concept that a veteran is so shell shocked that he cannot find a way to plug into society and function.

this is such a sad situation... they deserve better... God Bless them all...

I have something to add here. I had a friend whose husband was in the middle of changing jobs when he was called up for National Guard duty. He was away from his family for TWO YEARS. He came back and didn't have a job. I think the place that originally hired him, found a new place for him after a while though.

But, this got me to thinking. If you were a place of employment and you were hiring, would you hire a vet? Seriously? My husband is a vet so I know that getting out of the military is nothing - you are still at their beck and call for a few years. So as an employer, if you really need a guy in the warehouse - are you going to hire the one that will probably get called back to active duty?

so sad

I had a cousin in the Vietnam war that went homeless. Not because our family wouldn't care for him but because his mental issues wouldn't let him stay at home. He was so volatile my aunt was afraid of him. My uncle would find him on the street & bring him home and a few days later he would leave again. The VA hospitals would treat him for a few days then put him back on the street. He died a few years ago and I'm very angry about that.

SO SAD !!!

We ask these people to put their lives on the line for us and this is how we repay them? Unbelievable.

So the DOD knows there are homeless vets and the politicians (the dorks anyway) don't. I never thought the DOD would be the first one to know anything. What gets me is that old saying "We fight so you don't have to." The saying has it's flaws, but when conflict is entered someone fights. We don't just ask for their lives. War can destroy perfectly good hearts and minds. That 's the worst betrayal. We ask them to risk their sanity. It's worth a few good rehab programs and a little of our time, at the very least!

HI, I meant Shameful. Rough weekend, don't ask :-D

its a disgrace the way veterens are treated in this country, we got plenty of money to bomb the shit out of someone else's country, but we always seem to come up short when it comes to taking care of the people who serve