I hope his luck changes - I am sure the conversation raised his morale.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 39,471 veterans are homeless on any given night. So 60K is an unrealistic stat. More like 300K if you take in all 50 states.
Some have drug/booze/PSTD issues. Some don’t trust our government. IF seeking VA Care there is a $38K cap on income. Disability is the best route to go. Fastest route too. If you have a facilitator from a local AM Legion or VFW who know the ins and outs. Any portion of disability is exempt from Fed Income Taxes. If you are Medicare and Tricare Life, you use private facilities unless you have a disability. Not sure what Tricare Prime covers as we are well past Prime.
When you discharge make sure you have checked all the possible medical issue boxes, and seen the right docs. If it is an eye issue see an Othomologist not a lower grade Optometrist who just does Refraction’s they do not treat eye diseases caused by heavy metal cleaning chems. You work with a lot of heavy metal cleaning chems and eye problems are a big issue some time in your life. Hubby is Ret. SCPO, he developed Rentinitis and heavy doses of Predisone were needed, but all he saw until it was to advanced was a Optometrist. So it is not a claimable disability. Left holes in his vision, now at 77 has glaucoma and is getting a partial cornea transplant in Dec if the infection is gone.
Same goes for hearing if you work a flight deck or loud noise area. Have your hearing checked out before discharge and keep it checked. Just flight deck hearing loss is a 10% disability.