Policy Impact Assessment- Homeless Veterans

Policy Impact Assessment- Homeless Veterans

Introduction

In United States, homelessness has existed always, but in the last few decades the issue of homelessness has become prominent. In the years of 1970 and 1980, the numbers of homeless veterans and their visibility increased significantly. Experts have given various reasons for such trend and the important one is the demolition of single room also known as Skid rows. According to an estimate of National Alliance to End Homelessness, around 744, 313 children, men and women were homeless in 2005 in United States. According to Stewart McKinney Homeless Act, homeless people are those who don't have regular, fixed and adequate residence to spend the night time. One of the groups of the homeless population is consist of former foster youth. Around 25 percent of foster children are the victim of homelessness. There is another groups is the homeless veteran. The large part of the homeless person is consisting of homeless veteran. It is estimated that around 23 percent to 41 percent of the adults are homeless veterans.

The issue of homeless veteran got the attention of public when the issue of general homelessness becoming more common. New channels and media reports heighted the plight of those people who served for the country and were at that time spending their time on the streets. The generally accepted concept that army trained young people with educational, training for job, proved wrong when majority of the veterans lived a life of homelessness.

Discussion

It is important here to define the term homeless veterans because to avail the assistance from government a person has to eligible according to the definition. The definition has two layers of definition. Title 38 of United States Codes explain and governs the benefits veteran can get. According to title 38, the veteran is an individual who actively served the naval, army or air services and he/she was not discharged disgracefully. Second part of the definition of veteran explains the meaning of homeless individual. A veteran is categorized homeless if he/she meets the criteria of homeless individual. The definition of homeless individual is given Mckiney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Daly, 2013). A person who has actively served military, air services or navy and he qualifies the definition of homeless individual is known as homeless veteran and he is qualified to have assistance from respective government department.

Homeless Veterans: The Actual Numbers

The fixed and precise estimates of the number of homeless veteran is difficult to establish and is unknown due to the method used to estimate the number of actual homeless veteran. But in recent years, the method to estimate has improved significantly. In the beginning of 2011, however, two separate agencies coordinated to produce the actual number of homeless veterans. According to HUD estimated of Point-In-Time Count, in year 2012, the number of homeless veteran is 62,619 and the number of homeless veteran has decrease significantly since last four years. In 2009, homeless veterans were 75,609 (Perl, 2011).

Department Of Veteran Affairs

Most of the programs that are aimed ...