Serving Veterans and their Families

Veteran homelessness remains a serious issue that requires ongoing attention by all of us in the community. Although the national veteran homeless rate has decreased 39% in the last five years, the combined veteran homeless rate in New Hampshire and Vermont has actually increased by 15% in the last year. 
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Veteran homelessness rates remain substantially higher than rates for the general population. Friends of Veterans works tirelessly to assist veterans and their families who reside in New Hampshire or Vermont and are in imminent danger of becoming homeless. We are one of the very few organizations that is 100% volunteer; we have no paid staff. Friends of Veterans is an all volunteer 501 (c) 3 organization comprised of veterans and non-veterans. We welcome all who would like to assist our nation’s heroes.

Although there are many local and national efforts to reduce veteran homelessness, we expect the veteran homeless challenge to be significant well into the future. Recent forecasts reflect that as many as 200,000 military men and women will exit the armed services due to national budget (sequestration) issues. Many will return to civilian life less than adequately prepared to attain a meaningful job in a tough employment environment. At the same time, National Guard and Reserve outfits will continue to be activated and deployed to foreign lands. As NPR has recently reported, National Guard and Reserve troops find it very difficult to keep their jobs because of many unscheduled or extended deployments. Both New Hampshire and Vermont guard units have been (and are) deployed in 2015.