Oregon witnessing a big rise in homeless veterans

Veteran Brett Anderson works as a VA mental health counselor in Vancouver, Washington. In the two years he’s worked with homeless vets, he’s seen “an explosion in homelessness among those who served.” Anderson understands their stories: he “was homeless himself … for 14 consecutive years.”

“If you haven’t been there before, it’s hard to understand what it takes to escape that homeless cycle…

“There are nearly 1 million veterans living in Oregon and Washington. Thousands of them are homeless. But a special VA partnership is helping them get back on their feet.”

“See that’s the beautiful thing, that now I’m doing the exact same thing they did for me when I came to the VA,” Anderson said. “We are kind of setting an example for the community to do the same in providing housing for these people. I think everybody deserves a roof over their head of some sort.”

Read more at KOIN TV