Across the country, veteran homelessness is largely viewed as a problem that is very much worth solving, and many cities are now looking for ways to do so successfully. That includes Northampton, Massachusetts, a smaller city in the western part of the state where a number of homeless former servicemembers are now living.

The city recently held a meeting for landlords with properties to rent there, advising them about the homeless veteran problem and the ways in which they can help to solve it without taking any sort of major financial hit, according to a report from the Springfield Republican. There are a number of programs – both public and private – that now exist to help landlords cover the costs when they house homeless veterans, and as such, a larger number in Northampton are now willing to help deal with this issue.

A number of cities, large and small, have already effectively ended veteran homelessness within their borders, and as awareness of the problem – and how to solve it – grows, that's a trend that should continue for some time to come.

Many veterans have a hard time transitioning back to civilian life, especially if they faced traumatic events during their time of service. However, some experts now believe that people living in violent neighborhoods, such as those in Chicago, face similar trauma in their daily lives. As such, one organization is trying to bring these two groups together to work through those issues.

In Chicago last year, almost 3,000 people were victimized by gun violence in some way, and the Urban Warriors program is now working to connect teenagers living in the most-affected neighborhoods with veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report from National Public Radio. The thinking here is that both will likely need help to mentally process the trauma they've gone through – or continue to experience – and that talking about it can be a major help.

Indeed, the more veterans can do to reach out to anyone or any organization that might be able to help them get some sort of assistance, the better off they'll be. Many groups exist specifically to help veterans in need, and often all former servicemembers need to do is reach out.

Veterans, the GI Bill is the biggest and most important investment in your education the U.S. government has ever made. Don't let it go to waste.

From the moment you leave the service, you have 10 years to use all your veterans benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill and 15 years to use your benefits accorded under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

When those years are up, so too is your eligibility to attend any college or university under the program. No matter how good the reason, the government will under no circumstances extend those benefits for you if you fail to take advantage of them within that 10- to 15-year window.

In entering your life after service, you'll have a number of tough choices to make – namely, do you attend school full-time, get a full-time job, or try to balance an education and employment? 

Whatever path you choose, do not let your GI Bill benefits gather dust. Here's why using them is so important, according to the Transitioning Veteran blog: 

New opportunities
Having a college degree, certification, vocational training or some kind of apprenticeship on your resume will grant you access to a wide range of new opportunities in the civilian world. Because many employers look for job candidates with a college degree these days, obtaining one and coupling it with your military experience and related skills puts you way ahead of the pack. 

A safety net
Veterans know better than most how quickly a situation can change down range.To a certain extent, the same applies to the civilian workforce. Should you be laid off or your employment situation change – with a move, for example – having a degree or certification will help you get back into your field more quickly or else acquire a similar position elsewhere. 

Salary boost
When it comes to money, your education can make a big difference in how much you're taking home at the end of the day. A Pew Research study from 2014 found that the earnings difference between those with a degree and those without one was about $17,500 annually. That's the kind of salary boost you don't want to leave on the table. 

The GI Bill is one of the easiest ways a veteran can transition from military service to having a degree and a comfortable salary in four or five years. Don't let it go to waste by giving your money to a predatory school – not all for-profit schools are bad, but be careful – or at one that just isn't the right fit for you. 

Most of all, though, just don't let the opportunity to succeed pass you by. You've worked too hard and sacrificed too much to let that happen. 

Each year, many veterans across the country may be looking for a job, but have difficulty finding a position that works for them. However, that is oftentimes the result of unfounded concern on the part of people in charge of hiring, and many experts actually say this hiring method may be harmful to small businesses in particular.

It's not always easy for veterans to transition back to civilian life, but doing so successfully typically includes finding a full-time job, according to a report from Chief Learning Officer. However, small businesses have been criticized for not always being as open as they perhaps should be to the idea of hiring veterans. But in reality, veterans likely have many skills in a number of different areas that can perfectly suit them for success in a number of fields.

For this reason, experts say that it's often wise for small business owners who are in charge of hiring, or who directly oversee the people who are, to better educate themselves about the benefits that hiring former servicemembers can provide for their companies, the report said. Among the job skills veterans are likely to have is leadership and initiative that they learned while serving their country. Indeed, it may even be wise for them to not only hire veterans, but create hiring programs that can help to identify veterans who are well-suited to the work these companies do, and perhaps even form partnerships with organizations that help connect veterans and companies.

Meanwhile, veterans who are looking for jobs may want to reach out to such organizations. That can help them to find new job opportunities which may go a long way toward helping them have a smoother transition to civilian life once again.

A large number of organizations across the country are specifically focused on helping veterans get the support they need. This is particularly true of homeless veterans, of which a shockingly large number are women. Now, one such non-profit group in Kentucky is aimed specifically at helping women.

The group, called Sheppard's Hands, is currently working to renovate a home in Lexington, to provide housing to as many as three homeless women veterans at a time, according to a report from Lexington television station LEX 18. The house was donated by a local church with the goal of providing as much assistance as possible to these former servicemembers at what is obviously a difficult time in their lives.

"They go home and their families don't understand what they're going through so they can't talk about it, so they withdraw into drugs and alcohol a lot of times and end up out on the street," Phyllis Abbott, founder of Sheppard's Hands, told the station. "We want to make this a place where women come in and, they've been on the street, and all the sudden they're home and they're going to be loved on."

Women who move into the house will be able to live there for as long as a year, the report said. During that time, they will get access to support groups, counseling, job training, and so on, as part of an effort to get them on their feet again and move toward independent, healthy living once again.

The more that veterans in need to reach out to organizations such as these, which aim to provide a hand up to former servicemembers regardless of their situations, the better off they're likely to be going forward.

A streamlined veterans benefits appeals process, expanded access to private care programs and a simplified website are all now officially the goals of the Department of Veterans Affairs within the next 11 months, as stated by VA Secretary Bob McDonald at a Senate hearing on Thursday, Jan. 21.

According to the Military Times, McDonald announced his agency's 2016 ambitions at a hearing that he requested so as to inform the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee of how the corporate-inspired reforms of the VA are progressing after their launch more than one year ago.

"Our goal is to be the No. 1 customer service agency in government," McDonald told the committee. "We know we have a lot to do to get there."

So far, many of the moves made by McDonald have been internal and therefore out of the public eye, with little tangible effect on veterans themselves. The secretary has promised that pending changes will amount to significant improvements in how the VA interacts with and cares for veterans. 

Doubt remains, however, as the VA seems to take two steps back for every one step forward. The first-time claims backlog, for example, has fallen by more than 400,000 cases in the last few years, but pending benefits appeals cases have grown by 400,000 in the same time period. 

Controversies over ineptitude and even corruption within the VA led Congress members on Thursday to question whether or not enough high-level employees had been demoted amidst scandals, The Associated Press reported. McDonald's response was swift.

"You can't fire your way to excellence," he said. 

Instead of casting blame, the secretary pointed to the availability of health care options his department aims to offer in the coming months. 

"Our objective is that by the end of 2016, a veteran can go wherever they want (for health care) and it will be paid for," McDonald said, according to the Military Times.

Some lawmakers remained skeptical, but McDonald hopes to prove them wrong. 

Many cities are undertaking serious efforts to get homeless veterans off the streets and into semi-permanent or permanent housing. Now, two North Carolina cities say they have effectively ended that problem within their borders.

Both Fayetteville and Winston-Salem report having a "functional zero" homeless veterans living there, as every former servicemember who wants permanent housing has now been provided with it, according to a report from the Associated Press. This is because, several years ago, the VA took aim at housing veterans instead of just treating them for their various issues while they still lived on the streets.

This new way of dealing with veteran homelessness seems to be significantly more effective, because it allows for former servicemembers to have some amount of stability in their lives while they deal with issues such as addiction and joblessness, the report said. That change can make a world of difference to those who are struggling.

These are two of several cities across the country that have effectively eliminated veteran homelessness, but there is still more to be done to help veterans in many ways, and likewise, those servicemembers should keep in mind that there are many organizations looking to lend a hand.

One thing that many veterans do after returning from service is decide to start their own small businesses. Now, there is a "startup incubator" in Florida that is going to help more do so in the near future.

The Veterans Virtual Accelerator from Venture Hive will provide free training to employees at small businesses owned by veterans or veterans' spouses, according to a report from the Military Times. Venture Hive will provide such training courses to as many as a dozen companies across the country. This is the second program for veteran entrepreneurs the company has launched.

"It's easily a $25,000 program, but I would say it's more like a $50,000 value because it's really a mini MBA specifically for startups," Venture Hive founder Susan Amat told the newspaper. "And we're not just training the CEO but the entire team to be able to run the business better."

Many small businesses are run very successfully by veterans these days, but the more help these former servicemembers can get, the better off they're likely to be. That can also be a huge help for their communities as well, because it provides them with more job creators.

Each year, more is done to help veterans as they return home from service, by local, state, and federal governments. This is certainly the case in Massachusetts, where lawmakers recently pushed through a raft of new bills designed to help former servicemembers in a number of ways.

In the final few weeks of 2015, members of the Massachusetts legislature sent several bills to Gov. Charlie Baker to be signed into law, according to a report from State House News Service. A number of these were recently explained to former servicemembers at an annual Boston luncheon for veterans, with a few highlighted as being particularly important to upholding the respect that veterans are due. For instance, these laws make it illegal to impersonate a veteran for some sort of gain, institute punishments for people who damage veterans' graves, and also give Purple Heart recipients free access to state parks.

"Something like six pieces of legislation got to the governor's desk on, before or just after Veterans Day this fall, some very significant bills," Senate President Stanley Rosenberg told the assembled veterans, according to the news organization. "I know that [Michael Rush, a state senator and Navy Reserve officer] and [State Rep. Jerald Parisella, a veteran of the Army Reserve] are working hard now on another package of legislation which we hope will be ready to be considered as we approach Memorial Day."

Further, lawmakers note that they plan to continue working with the Massachusetts Veterans' Service Officers Association to craft new legislation, the report said. In the near future, these could include laws pertaining to veterans housing and the ability of veterans to get civil service jobs.

This is part of a large and fortunately growing trend among lawmakers at all levels, who are now doing more to help veterans navigate the often difficult aspects of their everyday lives after they return from service.

For some time now, many veterans coming home from service have required at least some help, and oftentimes significant assistance. Fortunately, there has been a significant safety net in place, in the form of hundreds of thousands of care-giving professionals.

President Barack Obama signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act into law in May 2010, with an eye toward helping more veterans to get assistance when they need it, according to a report from the Miami Herald. The good news is that the law seems to be working pretty well so far. The industry has seen more than 1.1 million Americans move into the care-giving profession in recent years, and of that group, about 1 in 5 work directly with veterans.

"This is the longest period of war in U.S. history," Steve Schwab, executive director of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which works to raise awareness and support for military caregivers, told the newspaper. "We are just beginning to learn all the ramifications of that, including what these caregivers are facing. Our national conversation needs to be about the long haul."

Through the bill, veterans of the most recent Middle East conflicts are given stipends when they need this type of care, ranging in value from $650 to $2,300 each month, the report said. More than 22,000 caregivers are eligible for visits. In South Florida alone, more than 300 people receive the stipends, in addition to having access to other benefits such as regular support sessions.

The more veterans can do to find out when they're eligible for such assistance, and what they can do to obtain it, the better off they're likely to be going forward. That could go a long way toward getting veterans whatever help they might need in their everyday lives.