Homeless People: Ex-Service Personnel/Veterans in the United Kingdom

Research in the mid- to late 1990s suggested that approximately one-quarter of homeless people in Britain had served in the armed forces and that homeless ex-service personnel tended to be more disadvantaged than other homeless people: they were older on average, and were more likely to have slept rough, to have suffered from physical health or alcohol problems, and/or to have been homeless for prolonged periods. While their routes into homelessness are often similar to other homeless people, ex-service personnel seem less inclined to seek or accept help given their tendency to elevate the perceived ‘shame’ of their situation. A number of measures were put in place by the central government in an attempt to reduce the incidence of homelessness amongst ex-service personnel, and recent research in London suggests that these have been effective in reducing the level of homelessness amongst this group and providing a wider range of support options than those available to other single homeless people in the capital.