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Detroit Ranks As Worst City In U.S. For Veterans

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Thousands of veterans across metro Detroit took part in a moving Veteran's Day parade Sunday in Detroit, just ahead of the official holiday on Friday, Nov. 11.

Despite the support from those who came out -- including Tigers ace Justin Verlander -- it turns out Detroit is a terrible city for veterans.

Personal finance website WalletHub released a report Monday to "help support the brave men and women who've done so much for us."

The Best & Worst Places for Veterans report compares 100 of the most populated U.S. cities across 21 key metrics, ranging from "percentage of military skill-related jobs" to "housing affordability" to "availability of VA health facilities."

Best Cities for Veterans
1 Scottsdale, AZ
2 Laredo, TX
3 Irvine, CA
4 Plano, TX
5 Austin, TX
6 El Paso, TX
7 Colorado Springs, CO
8 San Diego, CA
9 Tampa, FL
10 Orlando, FL

And then there's the worst list, which includes Fort Wayne, Ind., Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Jersey City, Boston, Memphis, Cleveland, Newark ... and Detroit.

Detroit was at the bottom of them all, ranking 100 on the list of 100.

Jobs, local economy, and overall health scores placed the Motor City squarely at the bottom of the pile.

Overall, 461,000 American veterans were still unemployed as of October, per the study.

"Other issues still require attention from various levels of government. Veterans in many cities wait too long — 115 days on average in Phoenix, for instance — to see a mental-health professional, despite a $10 billion effort to expand their access to such care. Thousands this year also lost their GI Bill education benefits as a result of for-profit school closures," the report says.

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