Austin Honors Veterans
Austin proudly ranks among America's best cities for veterans
It’s Veterans Day, and the city is paying homage to the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country. But what happens during the rest of the year?
WalletHub recently released a ranking of 2015’s best and worst cities for veterans, and the new report highlights Austin's veteran initiatives. Coming in at No. 9, Austin is one of the most livable cities for military vets. Drawing upon 18 key metrics to rank 100 of the most populated U.S. cities, Austin places in the top 10 due to its positive outcome in the “economic wellness” and “environment, education, and health” categories.
The data looked at a number of factors to determine Austin’s livability for vets, including percentage of military skill-related jobs, veteran unemployment rate, rate of veteran income growth, number of VA health facilities per vets, emotional health, and number of homeless veterans.
Austin is taking its homeless veteran population very seriously, which could be why our city earns a top spot. Not only does the City of Austin have an initiative to hire a high percentage of veterans, but Mayor Steve Adler also announced in January a goal to get all 234 reported homeless veterans off the streets and with a roof over their heads.
Adler told Fox 7 News that the city has “probably housed about 112 of these folks. We’re a little over 100 still to go.” Adler is optimistic that the goal will still be reached by the end of 2015, proving that Veterans Day is more than just a singular day of respect in November.
The best cities for veterans are Irvine, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Raleigh, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida; and Gilbert, Arizona. The worst cities for vets rank as Fort Wayne, Indiana; Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; Hialeah, Florida; Newark, New Jersey; and Detroit, Michigan.
For more information and to view the full report, visit WalletHub.