2016’s Best & Worst Places for Veterans to Live

From Wallethub, Nov 7, 2016

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 return the favor by providing our veterans with adequate benefits such as quality health care and help with housing and education upon re-entering civilian life.

But those benefits are not evenly distributed across cities. Although certain conditions have improved for veterans — both unemployment and homelessness have declined for this group — other issues still require attention from various levels of government. Veterans in many cities wait too long — 115 days on average in Phoenix, for instance — to see a mental-health professional, despite a $10 billion effort to expand their access to such care. Thousands this year also lost their GI Bill education benefits as a result of for-profit school closures.

In honor of our troops who fought bravely in the name of American freedom, WalletHub crunched the data to determine the most livable cities for service members with veteran status. Our analysts compared 100 of the largest U.S. cities based on 21 key indicators of veteran-friendliness. They range from “percentage of military skill-related jobs” to “availability of VA health facilities.” Continue to read below for their findings, additional expert commentary and a full description of their methodology.

read … 2016’s Best & Worst Places for Veterans to Live

Honolulu, HI

18 – Overall

63.60 – Total Score

15 – Jobs

6 – Economy

99 – Quality of Life

9 – Health