Look, I know ’tis the season to be jolly, but downer alert: The huge increase in the number of women who’ve enlisted to serve our country has an alarming flip side. The number of female homeless veterans has doubled over the past decade. It’s now estimated that 6,500 ex-service women are out on the street. Many of these women have mental health issues or substance abuse problems, and a lot of them have a childhood history of sexual trauma, or experienced it during military service. Services for these national heroines are dwindling, and younger female veterans are showing up in apparently record numbers at veterans affairs (VA) hospital, too. Homeless female veterans are often younger than their male counterparts and more likely to bring children with them, if they lose their homes. Keep reading »
