Today is Veteran’s Day. It’s nice how everyone stops on this day to honor the sacrifices our veterans have made for it. They truly deserve the honor.

Yet that spirit does little to diminish some sobering facts about the difficulties many veterans face upon coming home:

VA estimates that 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.

In my opinion, no matter how kind our words, they don’t excuse this horrendous failure of our actions. Let’s act and fix this. Is anybody going to try to tell me our veterans are not worth the cost?

What do we need to do? Here’s what the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says:

Veterans need a coordinated effort that provides secure housing, nutritional meals, basic physical health care, substance abuse care and aftercare, mental health counseling, personal development and empowerment. Additionally, veterans need job assessment, training and placement assistance.

NCHV strongly believes that all programs to assist homeless veterans must focus on helping them obtain and sustain employment.

Let’s get it done.