Closely linked to the criminal justice system is the homeless population. A 2016 report found that approximately 8.6 percent of Florida’s homeless population are veterans. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, seventy percent of homeless Veterans nationwide have substance abuse problems, and fifty percent suffer from serious mental illness. Nationally, an estimated 132,847 veterans were living in an emergency homeless shelter or transitional housing in 2015. This accounts for one out of every 163 veterans in the U.S. or one out of every 11 veterans living in poverty.