The alcove of a vacant building in downtown Raleigh provides temporary shelter for North Carolina's homeless population. (Photo: Clayton Henkel/NC Newsline)

New numbers show the U.S. has made some encouraging progress in recent years in curbing homelessness among military veterans.

Since 2009, the official count of homeless vets has fallen by more than half, and the reasons behind this trend are not hard to find.

Spurred on by lobbying from veterans groups like the American Legion, Congress has invested heavily in programs that aid struggling vets with affordable housing and other important services.

Unfortunately, the sad flipside to this news is that homelessness for all other groups continues to spike. Here in North Carolina the overall homelessness number was up nearly 20 percent last year — 31 percent for people who were on the street.

And the reasons for this are obvious. Programs to help non-veteran homeless people are much less well-funded.

The bottom line: Curbing homelessness will never be easy, but it’s not rocket science. As the success with veterans shows, sustained public investments can make a big difference. Would that all homeless Americans had champions like the veterans lobby in their corner.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.