Homelessness Among Veterans

U.S. mission: End homelessness for veterans by 2015, By Rob Hotakainen, April 4, 2012, Seattle Times: “Darren Spencer, a 39-year-old Army veteran from Tacoma, found himself homeless after losing his $15.45-an-hour job as a furniture mover a year ago. He takes pills for his depression and has trouble hearing. He has no car. And his unemployment benefits ran out in December. But Spencer considers himself lucky on one count: In August, he got a voucher from the federal government to help pay the $725 monthly rent for his apartment in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, where he lives with his 18-year-old son, Lamont. ‘I still have a lot of stress, but that’s one thing I don’t have to stress about,’ Spencer said. ‘It’s still hard, but at least now I have a place to stay.’ Spencer is among the thousands of beneficiaries of a federal effort to end all homelessness among veterans by 2015. It’s a lofty goal as the nation gears up to accommodate an additional 1 million service members set to return home from war in the next five years…”