Help for Homeless Veterans

With the recent troops returning from Iraq, this article on how to help returning veterans and those already in the U.S from being homeless seems fit. By leaving home for months or years at a time, the families of veterans are left struggling to stay afloat. However, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development have been working diligently to keep our countries veterans off the streets, and they have been making progress. According to the author, the number of veterans living in shelters and on the street in 400 communities has dropped 12 percent in the last year, from 76,329 to 67,495. Obviously this is still way too many veterans to be left homeless or in shelters, but the improvement is creating hope. Others, such as Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, have been working hard to help our veterans. Shinseki's goal is to eliminate homelessness among veterans by 2015 (NYTimes.com). With people like this, the movement to keep returning veterans and their families out of the streets and in comfortable homes looks hopeful.

The author of this source uses a combination of a logos and pathos appeal to get his point across. He includes countless statistics on veterans and urban housing, which astonish people about how bad the housing situation for veterans really is. This astonishment creates sorrow and even a bit of anger in people, because these veterans are the ones defending our country, and they should be able to come home and not have to live on the streets. The emotions that the author draws on is truly the strongpoint of this article, and it is successfully able to translate his point across to his reader.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/opinion/help-for-homeless-veterans.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss