131,000 Homeless Vets

That's the stark and depressing news the Veterans Affairs Department released on Tuesday, while VA said the goods news is that the number is down 15 percent from last year.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced that the department made more than $17 million in grants to community groups in 19 states and the District of Columbia to provide 1,155 beds for homeless vets as winter approaches.

I don't have any magic formula to cure the homeless vet problem, but I do know it will require much more than temporary shelter beds, such as dealing with drug and alcohol problems, which eventually lead to no job and then no house.

Behind the substance abuse in many cases lies combat stress. I know many a vet who has tried and failed the "alcohol fix" for PTSD.

VA says it has a goal to eliminate the homeless vets problem in five years, which from my perspective is about four years too long for men and women who will spend this winter sleeping on steam grates or huddled around fire barrels.