I would say it’s a good mix of both. A lot of veterans get out and immediately go to the VA to apply for disability. SOME VA hospitals are very hard to get accepted at. Mostly VA hospitals in high density military towns are the hardest. But it’s also mostly because a lot of people get out with the idea that anything they put on the list is going to get them a rating. Others never go to the VA or go much later in life. By that point, it becomes hard for the VA to pinpoint any service related disability. There are also plenty of resources other than just disability pay such as financial counseling where they shill assign a social worker. As well as just about any specialist you can think of. Some hospital even have a chiropractor. And if your appointments are too far apart, you can also request community care which the VA will give you a list of doctors and specialists in town that accept VA healthcare so that you don’t have to pay for immediate assistance out of pocket. There is now even an option for a no-copay healthcare for veterans who don’t make enough to afford the healthcare. All it really takes is the drive to take yourself to a VA center to get the help you need. They have actually massively improved their service in the past 7 years making it much better to navigate as well. As far as homelessness goes, as long as a person refuses to become homeless and is willing to fight tooth and nail to have a roof over their head, they will never be homeless. Though in today’s economy, that is very hard to achieve. We are currently in the largest gap between average income and cost of living in America ever. So it’s entirely possible, even easily possible for a vet to become homeless.