THE HOMELESS 'VETS' WHO AREN'T

GRIEVANCE GROUP'S BOGUS STATISTICS

By MICHAEL FUMENTO

"Eleven years ago, I debunked a "study" claiming a third of all men in homeless shelters were vets - noting it was based entirely on the men's own claims, and that claiming to be a vet is a favorite panhandler ploy.

But comes now a new "study" from the Homeless Research Institute (HRI), the research arm of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It claims government data show that vets are more than twice as likely to be "homeless" as non-vets - that is, that vets make up 11 percent of the adult US population, but 26 percent of the labeled homeless.

The 29-page report also insists it's a myth that substance abuse and/or mental illness is at the heart of the homelessness problem; rather, it's "lack of affordable housing." And, naturally, it's the job of an expanded government to make that housing affordable.

HRI's claims are false on both the "veteran disparity" and the causes of homelessness. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, for example, says only 18 percent of homeless are veterans (albeit based on incomplete data), and that's down from 23 percent in 1996.

That still leaves vets seeming to be disproportionately homeless. But you have to account for two facts: the demographics of those in homeless shelters differ vastly from those not homeless, as do demographics of veterans and non-vets. Most important: Among adults in homeless shelters, males outnumber females by three to one, while females outnumber males in the general adult population. And 93 percent of all veterans are male.

So HRI didn't really measure the disparate homeless rate of vets; at best it restated the obvious - that men are a lot more likely to be homeless than women."

The sloppy socialists will use anyones misfortune to further their agenda, and for as much as they despise military personnel its fine to employ them to tug at the heart strings. Read it all and wonder how in all hells they think they can get away with this nonsense.