End homelessness for veterans
The experience of war can be deeply traumatizing. One index is that here in King County, veterans are a quarter of those experiencing homelessness — though they make up just 9% of the adult population.
While the majority of today’s homeless vets are from the war in Vietnam, today’s conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are inflicting wounds — both visible and hidden — that put them at high risk. Indeed there is evidence that the downward spiral for today’s vets can be far faster than for an earlier generation. That’s both because of the nature of today’s injuries, and the troubled state of the U.S. economy, which offers few jobs for today’s returning service members.
We owe it to all of our vets to be there with the support they need once their military service is complete. United Way of King County is playing an important part, both in helping vets avoid homelessness in the first place, and in catching them and helping restore balance if they’ve already fallen.
- Watch our Public Service Announcement on YouTube.
- Meet Cory, a recently-returned vet of the Iraq War, who with his newborn daughter had a fast descent into homelessness, but then turned things around with the help of United Way and partners.
- Read our Case Statement for preventing and overcoming homelessness among vets.
- Run a supply drive for our Community Resource Exchange — an all-in-one-place, all-in-one-day gathering of services and resources for people grappling with homelessness. There are housing referrals, job training resources, dental services, hot meals, opportunities to place free long-distance calls, even haircuts.
- Give to our work to end homelessness and help meet people’s basic needs.
- Find out about our Campaign to End Chronic Homelessness and how it's gotten more than 1,500 people off the streets and back to hope.
