There’s no place like home for the holidays – if you have a home. More than 550,000 Americans are homeless in a typical night, and 1.4 million will spend some time in a shelter.

Flawless counts are impossible to come by. The transient nature of the homeless population presents a major difficulty. The Department of Housing and Urban Development - HUD - estimates that 40,056 veterans are homeless on any given night. Approximately 12,700 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Opération New Dawn were homeless in 2010. The number of young homeless veterans is increasing, but only constitutes 8.8 percent of the overall homeless veteran population.

Join me for a frank discussion with a disabled veteran who has been homeless and is now working to end this problem for good. He will tell you all the ins and outs and possibly how you could help out.

The homelessness problem affects everyone, but it is our duty to take care of those who went to war for us.