Most non-VA programs assisting homeless veterans are geared to changing the lives of homeless veterans, to helping overcome their addictions and a myriad of other problems. No homeless veteran has small problems and no single step will make things right for them. Approaching graduation, the veterans will be offered placement services, for both employment and housing. In a few cases, continuous, on-going aftercare will be needed. Most are homeless because they are veterans and because their problems are uniquely different than the rest of the needy in the streets.
Statistics suggest the answer.
Homeless veterans come from every ethnic group, but they are overwhelmingly men and their median age is 45. Most served during the Vietnam War, although some post-Vietnam and Gulf War veterans tend to lower the median age. Let us step back for a moment and offer a clearer view. Most Americans, by the age of 30, watch a hundred or more western movies. Like Vietnam, it was brutal war after which many veterans found no place that felt like home.