Housing Priorities

In response to “Prioritize Vets, Save the Credit,” editorial, June 16:

I have one major objection to your proposal that affordable low-income housing be made available to veterans before any others: The poor are disproportionately female, while veterans are overwhelmingly male.

Veterans already get extensive benefits packages. From health care to insurance to housing loans, this aid has helped needy men, plus the occasional woman, for generations. I don’t begrudge the aid; these people put their lives on the line for us.

But female poverty worries me more. Women accept more responsibility for parenting in our society. Their wages (still 69 cents on the male dollar) feed more mouths and clothe more bodies. Their waking hours go to looking after, training and caring for more people. The generation they raise will include the people I’ll have to hire, fire and sit next to on the subway. Any aid for the low income that puts poor women’s needs further on the back burner contributes to the problem more than remedies it.

N. CINLAR

Irvine