No Home for the Brave

 

 

 

 

Homelessness is one of the many issues that occur to many military veterans. Though veterans are less than 8 percent of the population, past studies has shown that veterans make up about 20 percent of Americans without stable living. No one, let alone those that risked their lives to protect our country should be in the position of not having a permanent home of going to. But what is the cause of so many veterans being homeless? The answer is simpler than what you think.

          Now many would think post-traumatic stress, brain injuries and drug abuse are the main factors to the homelessness problems of those veterans. But the mismanagement of money, has been the pitfall that many have become victim to, and potentially is the easiest problem to address.

            Researchers from the University of North Carolina and Duke University, recently found that of a 1,000 of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan era, one-third of them has gone over their credit limit, written a bad check or been contacted by a collection agency. The median income for that group of veterans was $50,000, so the financial problems they were inheriting weren’t due to low-income.

            One solution to this epidemic amongst veterans is the military providing financial education to those serving. For at least the first three years of their service, military workers should be required to attend a seminar of some sorts that educates them on how to properly manage their money. They could teach them how to create a budget, avoid financial scams, and balancing a checkbook. But the financial education should not stop at the beginning of their service, post-term classes should be offered for free to those veterans to inform them how to preserve and smartly invest their money after leaving the service.

            Veteran Affairs has found that homeless veterans are six times more like to consider suicide than those who are financially stable. This is even more of a reason why the lack of monetary competence should no longer be an issue that is ignored and be addressed soon to help keep our veterans in a home.