By Richie Bernardo, WalletHub
Freedom is not free. Protecting that right demands hard sacrifices, including the loss of millions of American lives. Here at home, we have a duty to safeguard the rights of our military personnel by providing adequate benefits — such as health care, housing loans and education assistance — upon their safe return from service.
But those benefits remain in short supply for our veterans. Thousands are still desperate for mental health care when they need it most, many receive subpar-quality education compared with the promises of the GI Bill and full-time jobs are scarce. Of the 21.1 million military veterans residing in the U.S. as of October 2015, about 422,000 are unemployed, many because of disabilities that resulted from active duty. According to PBS, “Almost 60 percent of veterans who were retired from the military in 2012 due to a service-connected disability were under the age of 35.”
In honor of those who fought bravely in the name of American freedom, WalletHub took on the mission of finding the most livable cities for our former military service members. We drew upon 18 key metrics to rank 100 of the most populated U.S. cities. Our data set ranges from the percentage of military skill-related jobs to the availability of VA health facilities. With our findings, we aim to help our veterans find a comfortable home in the country they once served.
Visit www.wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-cities-for-veterans/8156 for the full report, including expert coverage of the topic.
Richie Bernardo is a personal finance writer at WalletHub. He graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism and a minor in business from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
