If you’ve picked up the Eagle lately you’ve likely seen some stories about veterans: long-lost remains being repatriated and reunited with families who had despaired of ever having closure; tributes to local veterans who lost their lives while serving our country; a new VA health clinic that should help reimagine how veterans get the care they need.

There are good things happening — here and across the country — for veterans. But we can’t let the good paper over our failures. And make no mistake, we do continue to fail.

In 2016 President Barack Obama boasted that his administration had reduced the number of homeless veterans by 47 percent. That year the number of homeless veterans dipped below 40,000, he said proudly.

That was undoubtedly good news at the time. But what the president didn’t say was that his administration had failed spectacularly to live up to a promise it made five years earlier, when then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced a plan to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2014.

As of last year, the administration’s nationwide program — called the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness — had only succeeded in two states.

Pennsylvania isn’t one of them. The Eagle was at Butler County’s Stand Down event on Friday, and we can confirm that there are still homeless veterans here. For some of them Friday was a good day because they had a chance to get a meal and some warm winter clothing.

Think about that for a second: for some veterans in Butler and the surrounding counties, a good day is getting access to clothes and supplies so they can more comfortably live in shelters or on the street this winter.

We can’t decide if dwelling on that fact is heartbreaking or enraging.

Homelessness is not the only issue that veterans face. If you take the time to speak with veterans service organizations and the people they serve, you’ll come to understand veterans face challenges that range from access to care and benefits to unemployment, suicide and many other health and health services issues.

None of those issues are going away. Each year about 200,000 people leave active duty in the American armed services and become veterans. Some will leave the service and return home hale and healthy; others will join the 3.6 million veterans of this country who have a service-related disability. A much smaller number will join the 39,471 veterans that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates are homeless on any given night.

The time is now to recommit to driving that number to zero.

—PAR