Excellent piece from IPS on this week's 'Stand Down' in Northern California. Stand Downs are events where homeless veterans are given access to good food, clean clothes, showers and beds, and even access to lawyers and judges to address outstanding warrants and other legal problems.
Nationally, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that on any given night more than 100,000 veterans are homeless, with double that number experiencing homelessness in the course of a year.
Very conservatively, the National Council for Homeless Veterans estimates that one out of three homeless men sleeping in a doorway, alley or box in U.S. cities and rural communities has put on a uniform and served the country. These are staggering and tragic numbers that should upset and offend anyone and everyone. NO other way to say it: this should not happen in America.
