A joint announcement from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday, Dec. 8 confirmed a $5.9 million grant to assist homeless Native American veterans in their life after service. Permanent residences and support services will receive the majority of the funding.

"By targeting resources directly to tribes, we can better honor the service and sacrifice of Native American veterans who now need a roof over their heads," said HUD Secretary Julian Castro, according to The Washington Times. "These heroes deserve hope for a brighter future, and by offering permanent housing solutions, combined with needed services and case management, we can work with tribes to end veteran homelessness."

Twenty-six tribes are recipients of the grant money. They will manage and distribute the HUD housing vouchers to those who require them. According to the Times, the HUD-VA Supportive Housing vouchers are the result of a cross-agency initiative by HUD and the VA to quickly and efficiently house any veteran who has recently become homeless. Counseling and clinical support is also provided.

"Targeting HUD-VASH vouchers to veterans living on tribal lands opens new opportunities for helping Native American veterans exit homelessness as quickly as possible," said VA Secretary Robert McDonald.

Tulsa, Oklahoma station Fox 23 reported that since 2008, close to 80,000 HUD-VASH vouchers have been awarded and about 90,000 homeless veterans have been helped through the program itself. By assisting with rent and other services, the joint-agency venture has proven essential in putting an end to homelessness among former servicemembers.

Last year, Congress authorized an expansion of the program into Indian Country and directed HUD to work with Indian tribes and tribal organizations to make sure that qualifying Native American veterans – at least 500 of whom will benefit directly from the new grant – received all the veterans benefits they had earned. 

Many Americans are, at this point, well aware that there is something of an epidemic in this country when it comes to homeless veterans. However, not as much is being done about it by state legislators as probably could be.

As a result, one retired Army specialist and his dog recently spent 24 hours outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston to raise awareness among average Americans and lawmakers alike, according to a report from Boston television station WBZ. The veteran, Stephen Bohn, and his dog, Minnie, did this to raise awareness of the fact that there are an estimated 50,000 homeless veterans nationwide, and sat through some bitter New England winter weather to do it.

"It was rough," Bohn said. "I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to play some macho, 'I was military,' it was rough. [But] I decided, hey, why not go and support them, see if we can make a buzz around here to change that and get these men and women off the streets."

Bohn was injured by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan but is not homeless himself, living in nearby Salem, Massachusetts, the report said. He further added that he got the idea by walking around the city of Boston and seeing numerous homeless veterans who had to brave the cold every night.

Fortunately, more lawmakers, at least on a local level, are starting to look for solutions to the veteran homelessness crisis, and a number of organizations have sprung up in recent years to put in their own efforts on this front. Consequently, while this is still a major problem nationwide, it is at least one that is now being confronted on a far more regular basis than it once was.

For years, the economic downturn created some rather difficult labor conditions for millions of Americans to deal with, but those worries have slowly gone away over time thanks to slow but steady recovery. However, this may not have been the case for veterans of the most recent wars in the Middle East.

That group, specifically, had an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent in 2014 – the most recent full year for which data was available – about one-fifth above the 6 percent unemployment rate for non-veterans, according to the Deseret (Utah) News. This was particularly troublesome for women who served in these conflicts, who were unemployed at a rate of 8.5 percent, compared to 6.9 percent for men.

"If you served for four years as an infantryman or driver, it may be difficult for you to see a future in the financial industry or as a mechanic," Kim Morton, a spokesperson for a nationwide veteran's initiative, told the newspaper. "In 2014, roughly 53 percent of post-9/11 veterans dealt with a period of unemployment in their first 15 months out of uniform. Some of those veterans found work only to leave the job within their first year."

Moreover, though, many veterans who have jobs often struggle with underemployment, and others believe that they are overqualified for the work they are doing, the report said. About 1 in 3 respondents to a recent study said that they are dissatisfied with their current work situations for the latter reason.

However, many groups exist to help veterans deal with the rigors of civilian life, and often that kind of assistance is just a phone call or email away. The benefits for veterans these organizations provide may not always be apparent, but they're often relatively easy to find.

Some big changes are coming to the way the Pentagon recognizes combat service. According to the Military Times, a two-year internal review conducted by the Department of Defense has recommended 37 changes that will bring the military's medals system into the 21st century.

Among the changes are a new "C" device that will indicate a medal earned while in combat. Veterans will recognize its similarity to the "V" device currently signifying valor. Along with the new combat denotation is a definition – applicable to every service – of what "meritorious service in combat" means, a change that will affect the criteria for the Bronze Star. 

"We're ensuring that the Bronze Star goes out to those who are incurring the risk of combat or actually have a significant risk of hostile action," a defense official told the Military Times. 

But the Bronze Star isn't the only medal cast under a new light. 

CNN reported on Wednesday that the military was going back to take a close look at more than 1,000 medals awarded since the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, a review initiated by Chuck Hagel, then Secretary of Defense, intended to determine whether or not the actions cited in those awards were worthy of the Medal of Honor.

Seventeen Medals of Honor have been earned since U.S. troops first hit the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. The first seven were given posthumously, but in 2010 the Defense Department issued a clarification on what the "risk of life" qualification meant. Since then, CNN noted, all 10 recipients of the nation's highest honor have been living.

"There is no indication that any service members were not recognized appropriately, but the purpose of this is to ensure that those service members who performed valorously were recognized at the appropriate level," an official with the DOD told the news organization.

It is undoubtedly one of the more unusual methods designed to help ease the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, but that doesn't mean it isn't effective. The papier-mâché masks Melissa Walker, an art therapist and coordinator of healing arts with the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, asks veterans to make after returning stateside from Iraq and Afghanistan are vivid, expressive creations.

"It's actually the first art directive they're introduced to as they come through the program," Walker told The Daily Beast. "These are servicemembers that sometimes have trouble verbalizing what they're struggling with and these masks, along with all the artwork [they] create, help to make their invisible wounds visible."

Representing their experiences in combat and their military identities, the masks are incredibly evocative. One described by The Daily Beast is wound with razor wire and its lips sealed by a silver lock, while another succumbs to the pressure of a tightening vice marked with the acronym PTSD.

The veterans' creations have made such an impact that the National Endowment for the Arts has decided to fund an in-depth look at 400 of the masks at Drexel University in Philadelphia. 

Girija Kaimal, an assistant professor in Drexel's Department of Creative Art Therapies, told DrexelNOW that the masks have helped to create a bond between returning veterans. 

"For some service members in the program, the masks become a 'visual community,'" Kaimal told the university's paper. "They see the masks and say, 'I'm not alone.'" 

With so many veterans struggling to explain their experiences to families, friends and doctors in their life after service, the masks provide an outlet that doesn't require words. 

"A lot of research will tell you that when you're in a traumatic experience, the part of the brain that controls speech shuts down," Kaimal relayed to The Daily Beast. "So having a nonverbal way – such as art – to communicate is key to understanding what they're going through." 

Overlong wait times have been one of the Department of Veteran Affairs' biggest and most chronic problems for years. After facing criticism and scandals, the VA has instituted new measures to cut wait times by expanding veteran benefits to allow access to private sector physicians. Even with the recent changes, they have a lot of ground to cover.

According to News Channel 8 in Florida, the national office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars found that, after close analysis, 26 percent of veterans seeking treatment from private doctors still had to wait 30 days or more to get an appointment.

Why the long delays? Until a few months ago, the VA had treated the private sector as a pressure release valve – to be used only in case of emergency.

"VA has traditionally wanted to be everything for every veteran," a VFW senior legislative aid told the news channel. "And what the health care crisis taught is that you know that's not plausible, not very feasible for the VA to provide every instance of care to every veteran."

The Veterans Choice program, unveiled in late 2015, was meant to open up treatment possibilities and cut back on wait times and backlog. So far, however, the program has run into problems, in part due to miscommunication between the VA and Health Net, the contractor paid by VA to schedule appointments, about how many veterans would utilize the new option. 

In North Carolina, only minutes from Fort Bragg, a new VA Health Care Center was just opened in Fayetteville. Legislators and VA officials alike promised that new center would brighten the outlook for local veterans, the Fayetteville Observer reported.

Fayetteville, with one of the nation's bigger veteran populations, had some notoriously bad wait times back in summer 2014, when Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson first visited. The new 250,000-square-foot outpatient facility is a big step toward righting that wrong. 

"You served our country. You wore the uniform."

That's how a new statewide television ad from the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency begins, according to UPMatters.com. It is a simple message, but one that the agency hopes the state's more than 660,000 veterans take to heart as part of an effort to inform them of all options available. 

According to WLNS 6, the ads have appeared on billboards and radio in addition to TV. They all direct servicemembers toward information regarding the veterans benefits and assistance programs available to them. Personnel – many of them with time in the armed forces – are on call all day, every day to answer any questions veterans may have.

The TV ad is especially effective. It features four veterans entering their life after service, preparing for job interviews, exercising and relaxing in retirement. Each of these is representative of education, employment, health care and quality of life – pillars crucial to the MVAA's mission. 

"Assistance is just a phone call away," Jeff Barnes, MVAA director, told UPMatters.com. "This TV ad is a reflection of how our agency works to help veterans in all walks of life, whether they took off the uniform six months or 60 years ago." 

"As an agency, we have been serving veterans around the clock for nearly three years, but we still hear people say they don't know about us or the services we provide," Barnes continued. "When you see the TV ad or a billboard on the highway, share it with your dad, your niece or your coworker who's a veteran. We want to use this ad campaign as a conversation starter about their service to our country and how MVAA can connect them with the benefit they've earned." 

The military trains its personnel well, and the ride-hailing company Uber looks to take advantage of that by recruiting thousands of San Antonio veterans in 2016. By all accounts, it's an arrangement that's beneficial to both parties, KSAT 12 in San Antonio reported.

"They love the flexible work Uber provides, and, as you know, San Antonio has a very large military veteran community," said Chris Nakutis, the company's general manager in Texas.

Both Nakutis and San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor were on hand at a Wednesday Work on Demand event, showing current drivers their appreciation and making efforts to recruit more.

"We are focusing on our veterans, military folks, in using this as an employment option for them as they transition out of the military," said Taylor.

At the moment, about 600 former servicemembers are using Uber to make money as they transition into their life after service.

"Unlike a lot of positions that you have to interview for and/or wait for them to call you, as soon as you pass the background check and do all the essentials that Uber qualifies for you to do, you can get going and you work at your discretion. The sky is the limit," Air Force veteran and current Uber driver David Tolliver told KSAT 12.

San Antonio is just a small part of Uber's wider commitment – called UberMILITARY – to hiring veterans and military family members. According to a recent press release, the company hopes to onboard 50,000 military drivers over the next year and a half. 

Uber's partners in the initiative include members of all service branches, a retired four-star general, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. With minds like these serving as advisors, it's no surprise Uber has realized the value of hiring veterans. 

No one understands the needs of veterans like a fellow veteran, as Jesse Brown of Plymouth, Massachusetts is proving beyond a doubt. A former Marine, Brown established Heidrea for Heroes – a nonprofit organization supplying home and vehicle modifications, equipment, and various other kinds of support to veterans and their families absolutely free of charge – back in 2013 with the help of Matthew Mastroianni, another veteran.

"We're all in this together," Brown told the Boston Globe.

"The end goal is to help vets," Mastroianni, Brown's business partner, added.

Heidrea for Heroes' origins begin in the 1990s, when Brown and Mastroianni served. According to Heidrea's website, Brown was a Marine Corps field radio operator whose service stations included Camp Pendleton and Okinawa, Japan. Mastroianni, also a former Marine, is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

In their life after service, the men founded their own construction firm and saw real success before agreeing that they wanted to help other veterans in some way. Heidrea – a combination of Heidi and Andrea, their wives' names – was the result.

So far, the Globe reported that more than 100 veterans in the Plymouth area have been recipients of the nonprofit's efforts.

"We just got a disabled Vietnam veteran in Rockland an all-terrain wheelchair; he had been an avid hunter but can't walk. Now he can get back out into the woods," said Brown. "And that's the whole thing…giving veterans that independence and freedom they're looking for and deserve."

Some of the organization's funds come from the state, but Brown and Mastroianni say they take none for themselves. Every single donation goes straight to helping veterans, some of whom are stubborn about accepting help.

"That self-identification of need can be a problem sometimes – veterans are proud," Brown explained to the Globe. "We let them know we're there." 

Homelessness among veterans is a major issue across the country, but now many large municipalities are trying to do more to address it. One such place is Los Angeles County, where two lawmakers recently proposed a huge program to deal with the problem.

The Home for Heroes program, proposed by county supervisors Don Knabe and Hilda Solis, would cost $5 million and serve 1,000 or more homeless vets in the next year and a half, according to a report from the Los Angeles Daily News. That would include giving incentives to landlords who rent to homeless veterans, grants to cover some of their initial costs, and even something as simple as more beds in shelters specifically for veterans.

"One of the challenges in housing our homeless vets has been identifying housing for them, even when they had a voucher in hand," Knabe told the newspaper. "It was taking vets 90 days or longer to find an apartment."

This is part of a larger initiative to provide more support for the homeless in general, but Home for Heroes receives a special focus for obvious reasons, the report said.

Veterans who are struggling in any way should be on the lookout for programs such as these, offered by private groups as well as governmental agencies.