Summary of Veteran and Non-Veteran

By far, the most striking difference between homeless veterans and non-veterans is age. Nearly all homeless veterans (91.4%) were age 41 or older compared to 55.9% of homeless non-veterans. Conversely, while 44.1% of homeless non-veterans were age 40 or younger, only 8.6% of homeless veterans were in that age range. The gender difference – with virtually all (94.4%) veterans being male – generally reflects the male dominance in the military. Although there were some slight differences with respect to ethnic origin, none reached the level of statistical significance; the veteran population had a somewhat smaller percentage of African American and larger percentage of Caucasian than non-veterans. There were significant differences in household composition with veterans much more likely to be single adults with no children under 18 (85.7%) than non-veterans (69.0%). Both veteran and non-veteran populations exhibited the same rates of being sheltered at the time of the survey.

These are the areas that really stand out in terms of the reasons for homelessness for veterans. Veterans were much more likely to cite lost job/can’t find work, foreclosure, and substance abuse problems as the reasons for their current homelessness. Relative to substance abuse, veterans were 21/2 times more likely to cite this as a cause for homelessness (38.0%) than non-veterans (13.9%). The substance abuse theme is reinforced in the area of disabilities with 47.9% of veterans reporting issues with alcohol abuse compared to 22.7% of non-veterans and 40.5% indicating drug abuse compared to 21.9% of non-veterans.

                                                                                                                                           Homeless veterans were significantly better educated than non-veterans. For example, 7.6% of veterans had less than a high school diploma compared to 32.0% of non-veterans. Further, 50.0% of veterans had post high school education including college, technical/trade school, apprenticeship, associate degree and bachelor degree compared to 24.6% of non-veterans. In other words, veterans were twice as likely as non-veterans to have post-high school education. And although employment and unemployment rates were fairly similar for veterans and non-veterans, unemployed veterans indicated a significantly greater willingness to work

In terms of government benefits, veterans were significantly less likely to have public health care coverage, e.g. SSI/SSSDI, Medicaid, Medicare, BadgerCare Plus, or BadgerCare. The differences between veterans and non-veterans in these areas were substantial. Veterans were more likely to have veterans’ benefits and health care; 33.7% had veterans’ health care but overall veterans were not advantaged when it came to government benefits. Nearly a third of homeless veterans (31.9%) reported having no benefits at all compared to 15.8% of homeless non-veterans. There was virtually no difference between the two groups with respect to service gaps. READ FULL SURVEY RESULTS