O'Reilly Downplays Number of Homeless Veterans

Last night on The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly repeated his ridiculous assertion that there are few, if any, homeless veterans in America:

O'Reilly raised an important topic: the plight of homeless veterans. Too bad he got the facts wrong.

There are almost 200,000 homeless veterans in America. Let me introduce you to one:

Less than a year after serving with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, twenty-five year old Herold Noel found himself unemployed, homeless, and unable to provide for his wife and four children.

As a homeless Iraq veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and living out of his car in Brooklyn, Herold was not greeted by a support system for veterans. Instead, he met resistance from the Housing Authority, the VA, and New York's city shelter for families, filling out form after form and added to waiting list after waiting list.

According to Herold, "I thought New York was going to look out for me, I just got back from war. I felt like I'd been stabbed in the back."

Herald is not alone. Already, an estimated 1,500 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are homeless or at risk for homelessness. They are joining the increasing ranks of veterans who are homeless.

Bill, here are the facts. Veterans represent one-third of the adult homeless population in this country, and that number is rising. While almost 200,000 homeless veterans line the nation's streets every night, almost twice as many experience homelessness at some point throughout the course of a year. Essentially, we have the population of Des Moines, Iowa or Montgomery, Alabama "sleeping under bridges."

This is a national disgrace. As Americans we should be ashamed and outraged that the brave men and women of our Armed Forces are being abandoned under bridges, not denying their existence. As one of the most watched cable news hosts on television, Bill O'Reilly has a great opportunity to help homeless veterans by bringing more attention to the issue. Join IAVA in urging him to be part of the solution (www.BillwasWrong.com).

Click here to sign an open letter to Bill O'Reilly, telling him to set the record straight about the very real problem of homeless veterans in America. We also have a resource center where people can learn more, and find ways they can help.

UPDATE: Here's the video of me discussing the O'Reilly controversy with Keith Olbermann last night:

Follow Paul Rieckhoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PaulRieckhoff

Comments

[realpolitic]

O'Reilly is so rude and his guests are always so polite. Why do they play his game? They should just tell him to his face he is lying and walk off with their heads held high.

[veteranraver]

O"Rielly needed to study harder while he was a draft dodger. Because you don"t see homeless veterans does not mean they do not exist in numbers stated by the US Department of Labor and others. Its false inductive reasoning, ("I don"t see them therefore they don"t exist"). Join the Flat Earth Society Bill! Get off your behind and look under the bridges when the temperature is well below freezing!
Thanks to people (mostly draft dodgers) who have degrading remarks about Vietnam Veterans, many Vietnam Veterans lack a scene of pride of being or deny the identity as a veteran. In my opinion, O"Reilly is a cowardly draft dodger such as Bill Clinton who he rants on and on about. O'Reilly graduated from Chaminade High School in Long Island in 1967. In the years 1967-1968, O'Reilly would have to register for the draft. O'Reilly, single and within the age range, was high priority draftee material yet never enlisted or was drafted. O"Rielly ran to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In the fall of 1967, (in the bloodiest days of the Vietnam War) Bill O'Reilly ran to England to be a student in London College (sound familiar?).
O'Reilly spent his junior year, 1969-1970 at the University of London in the fall of 1970, he returned to Marist College from England. Even with the draft lottery in full force, O'Reilly would never be inducted. Instead, he ran to away to Florida where he took a job teaching at a high school. Two years later, in 1973, he was back in college at Boston University for a master's degree in broadcast journalism (you"re safe now Bill, the Paris Peace Accord has been signed and troops were returning).
Despite O'Reilly's denial of historical events, Vietnam and the draft really did happen. Two million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. The latest number of killed in action totaled 47,244.
Both Bill O"Rielly and Bill Clinton were draft dodgers. The only difference is that Bill Clinton served his country as President whereas Bill O"Rielly is still a coward.

[veteranraver]

O’Rielly needed to study harder while he was a draft dodger. Because you don’t see homeless veterans does not mean homeless veterans do not exist in numbers stated by the US Department of Labor and others. Its false inductive reasoning, (“I don’t see them therefore they don’t exist”). Join the Flat Earth Society Bill! Get off your ass and look under the bridges when the temperature is well below freezing!
Thanks to people (mostly draft dodgers) who have degrading remarks about Vietnam Veterans, many Vietnam Veterans lack a scene of pride of being or deny the identity as a veteran. In my opinion, O’Reilly is a cowardly draft dodger such as those (Bill Clinton) he rants on and on about. O'Reilly graduated from Chaminade High School in Long Island in 1967. In the years 1967-1968, O'Reilly would have to register for the draft. O'Reilly, single and within the age range, was high priority draftee material yet never enlisted or was drafted. O’Rielly ran to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In the fall of 1967, (in the bloodiest days of the Vietnam War) Bill O'Reilly ran to England to be a student in London College (sound familiar?).
O'Reilly spent his junior year, 1969-1970 at the University of London in the fall of 1970, he returned to Marist College from England. Even with the draft lottery in full force, O'Reilly would never be inducted. Instead, he ran to away to Florida where he took a job teaching at a high school. Two years later, in 1973, he was back in college at Boston University for a master's degree in broadcast journalism (you’re safe now Bill, the Paris Peace Accord has been signed and troops were returning).

Despite O'Reilly's denial of historical events, Vietnam and the draft really did happen. Two million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. The latest number of killed in action totaled 47,244.
Both Bill O’Rielly and Bill Clinton were draft dodgers. The only difference is that Bill Clinton served his country as President whereas Bill O’Rielly is still a coward.

[dirigo1]

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity."

---George Bernard Shaw

[splashy]

Well, at least you TRIED to get a word in about how wrong he is. Unbelievable!

[FOXYLADY]

As for O'Reilly......only real nut cases watch him anymore....or for that matter Fox News (which by the way is a misnome, News that is). Every once in awhile I keep him on waiting for the top of his head to explode.

[BobOnThis]

As a vet of 4 years it does disturb me to know that recently discharged war veterans may face untreated medical conditions, extreme hardship & possibly homelessness after great sacrifice.

It is of course absurd to suggest that all veterans, new and old, are entitled to a life time of charity... regardless of the life choices those individuals made!

[Stavo]

One thing I have learned.....is that when life seems at it's lowest ebb and I need a little humor to lift me.....I will tune into little billy o'reilly and listen. Then and only then, I realize that I haven't any problems and there are others in the world that have far more delusional problems than me. Listing the limped $ick rush limbaugh as the 1st and then little billy o'reilly and then down the list, whose problems in life, seem to make mine look like a splinter in the finger. Those rightwing hacks days are numbered and they know it....all have bought property outside of the United States and they have very good reason to do so....or so I have been told. lol

[Texashogfan]

I saw your interview on Countdown. And always read your articles. I thank you for shining a light on the darkness that our government has has allowed. I would love to see the O'Lie-A-Lots get their comeuppance in a very public arena.

[WarrenChristmas]

This article should be tacked to the top of Huffington Post' front page for the next 6 months instead of being allowed to fall off the front page after 48 hours.

[Jonny38103]

Thanks for keeping this in the forefront. I am a proud liberal who comes from a military family and has worked with the military for many years, including a year in Iraq. And the Repubs are the ones who support the military? Like they are the ones who are the Christian party? These are the false prophets, pure and simple.

[Not Blind]

Between Limbaugh's criticism of "phony" soldiers (as he labelled those who disagree with U.S. policy), and O'Reilly's gross underestimation of the homeless situation confronting our veterans, I can't stand to hear the administration's line about funding the war as supporting our troops.
Military and VA hospitals are in deplorable condition. Several have been closed, so vets must wait even longer to get treatment for their injuries or conditions (directly attributable to combat). The US can't pay military personnel a decent wage, but spend billions for Blackwater mercenaries (earning 10-fold) to commit murder. We have paid billions more to Haliburton to provide our soldiers with contaminated, un-filtered water (which undoubtedly will lead to disease) and have left many of our service personnel without body armor or adequate equipment.
Those who signed up for the National Guard in their states are on their 2nd or 3rd tours of duty, and their employers have been forced to give their jobs to others, so their prospects of getting their old jobs back are nill.
Many are returning with PTSD and other ailments, which render them unable to hold full-time employment upon their return. Their families suffer economic hardships while they're away, and then moreso when they return, if jobs are unavailable, or the vet is unable to work. They no longer have access to health care, and lose everything they had, all for the privilege of serving this country.
If we can't treat our veterans with the respect and dignity, provide support services for them, then we'll soon have no military left. Why would someone in their right mind enlist, knowing they'll be degraded, lose their job, health, and possibly their life, while those responsible for putting them in that predicament disavow any obligation to help and support them?
200,000 homeless veterans is a shame. While many homeless are addicts, alcoholics, or mentally disabled (non-veterans), there are also some non-veterans who've lost everything due to medical bills for a family member.

[wrabbitt]

Veteran is just another word for government to use as another group to remove funding from. Do you know a homeless vet? How about countryless? After what this country has done to our Veterans,i am ashamed to say i'm an american,let alone a Vet.

[dirigo1]

It's pretty simple: this is the way people who run this country want it. If they did not, we would not have the VA itself noting dryly that nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless every night, that nearly double that number experience homelessness at some point in a year - while denying, officially, that there is any causal link between military service and any malady that may befall people who serve the nation in uniform. This is the policy.

Gen. Mac Arthur used active duty troops to run World War I veterans out of Washington when those men protested over their treatment by the government. Most of the VA's estimate of homeless veterans appear to be Vietnam vets, men and women who serves in a war that ended more than thirty years ago. Now, Gulf War, Iraq War, and Afghanistan War vets, are part of this group of live "unknowns."

Bill O'Reilly only reflects the attitudes of many Americans who want it this way.

[lalahall]

Paul Rieckhoff's post was about a gravely important issue that was brought to the nation's attention by John Edwards. Yet, John Edwards's name is not mentioned in Rieckhoff's post even once. Make no mistake, I'm completely aware that this issue is not about John Edwards and that the plight of our veterans is a national crisis that requires immediate attention. However, it just seems as though the media are doing their best to ignore John Edwards, no matter how valid the points are that he raises.