The Homeless Vets Myth

Watch the video from John Stossel and read Michael Fumento's analysis of a homeless advocacy group's bogus statistics.

This shocking report got a lot of media attention when it first came out, but you won't hear about it now that it's been demonstrably proven false.

THE homeless-advocacy industry always puts the most sympathetic face on its "clientele." It works desperately to divert attention from alcoholics, drug users, schizophrenics, and fat panhandlers holding signs reading: "Hungry."

And it doesn't talk about unpleasant truths like those reported by ABC's John Stossel - who, after exhaustive efforts, managed to find only one person with a sign reading "Will work for food" who would actually do so.

Instead, advocates focus (with the media's help) on unrepresentative but heart-tugging cases - like veterans.

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.

Read the rest.

This isn't to say there aren't any veterans who maybe homeless. It's just not what has been reported.

Shocking how the media would mislead you, no?