First lady: Vets face 'unacceptable' job barriers [View all]

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First lady: Vets face 'unacceptable' job barriers
Associated Press Updated: July 16, 2014 at 10:00 pm

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The difficulties that military veterans face securing jobs are "unacceptable" and the notion of a veteran mired in homelessness should "horrify all of us," Michelle Obama said Wednesday in Los Angeles.

The first lady spoke to the crowd of 900 business, government and community leaders gathered for the United Way's Unite for Veterans Summit, which focused on ending homelessness and improving job prospects for military veterans. "After everything they have done for us, the idea that any of our veterans are spending months or even years struggling to find a job is unacceptable," she said.

The first lady also said that ongoing work in Los Angeles at the local, state and federal level was essential to the administration's recently announced goal of eliminating veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. Of the 58,000 homeless veterans in the U.S., more than 6,000 reside in the county of Los Angeles, according to estimates from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual homeless count.

The first lady cautioned that a "tiny percentage" of veterans end up on the streets, but linked homelessness to the overall need for employment and housing assistance to those returning to civilian life.
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More than 500,000 veterans and their spouses have found jobs under Joining Forces, the employment program launched by the first lady and Dr. Jill Biden, Obama announced in April.