HOMELESS ON VETERANS DAY

Gen. Eric Shinseki was famously shunned by the Bush administration for
daring to state the true costs of occupying Iraq. As President Obama's
secretary of veterans affairs, he is, thankfully, no less candid about
the grinding problems veterans face at home. They lead the nation in
depression, suicide, substance abuse and homelessness, according to
data that Mr. Shineski is delivering in salvos in his current role.

About one-third of all adult homeless men are veterans, and an average
night finds an estimated 131,000 of them from five decades bedding
down on streets and in charity sanctuaries. About 3 in 100 of them are
back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The problem of homelessness for
Vietnam veterans is, shamefully, well known. But the men and women in
this growing cohort took just 18 months to find rock bottom, compared
with the five years-plus of the previous generation's veterans.

General Shinseki has promised to galvanize the Department of Veterans
Affairs to lead a national drive to end veteran homelessness in the
next five years. Is that anywhere near possible? "Unless I put an
ambitious target on the table, I don't know how we'll start," the
secretary told a forum of wounded veterans.

He has also pledged $3.2 billion to bolster housing, education, job
and medical programs to help troubled veterans before they hit the
streets. The new G.I. Bill, for example, offers tuition help, but the
secretary says more immediate vocational training will also be
available. Similarly, he promises more beds for transition programs,
including those intended to help the 40,000 veterans released each
year from prisons.

This is an especially tall order for an unwieldy bureaucracy, one with
a notorious backlog of 400,000 disability claims. General Shinseki
says a renewed Veterans Affairs Department must, and will, address
that problem.

We believe he has the mettle to pull this off. He will need a lot of
help from the White House, Congress and communities across the
country. The general-turned-secretary is appealing to thousands of
worthy organizations already in the field to double their efforts to
help.

Our veterans shouldn't be forced to battle on their own just to
survive at home.