Jericho - Jericho Project Veterans Initiative

Jericho Project Veterans Initiative

The Crisis of Homeless Veterans

There are nearly 150,000 veterans in homeless shelters and on the streets in the United States and more than 300,000 veterans experience homelessness over the course of a year. A growing number of veterans are also severely rent burdened, with 500,000 paying more than 50% of their income on rent.

Veterans from the Vietnam war began to experience homelessness between 9 to 12 years after returning from combat and now represent nearly 50% of homeless veterans. Deeply concerning is that Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have already begun to experience homelessness. More than 2,000 veterans from the current conflicts have already accessed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs homeless programs and countless more are accessing community homeless shelters and programs.

More than 34% of soldiers in Iraq have been deployed multiple times, most of them in urban combat zones. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that 60% of soldiers injured in Iraq have sustained blast injuries, two-thirds of which are traumatic brain injuries (TBI). It has also been documented that 20% of Iraq war veterans overall are suffering from TBI or other combat related conditions such as depression, anxiety and/or post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). These traumas, coupled with the reality that 46% of Iraq veterans are under the age of 25, makes a seamless transition back to a healthy civilian life especially difficult

Homelessness among female veterans is also a growing problem. More than 160,000 women (1 in 10 soldiers) have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and the VA estimates that 10% of all homeless veterans are women. In addition to the psychological and physical traumas faced by their male counterparts, female veterans are faced with additional problems including family reunification and sexual trauma during their service. A recent Pentagon report concluded that 1 in 3 female soldiers will experience sexual assault while serving in the military and that 80% of military sexual assaults are never reported. Read more here.