Boston Ranked Fifth-Worst U.S. City for Veterans

The Hub improved one spot from last year's list.

Boston is the fifth-worst U.S. city for veterans, according to a new report by WalletHub coinciding with Veterans Day.

The personal finance social network released its list of the best and worst cities for veterans Monday, ranking Boston among the last in the nation, though one spot better than last year. Only Detroit, Newark, Cleveland, and Memphis scored lower.

To compile the ranking, WalletHub compared the 100 most populous U.S. cities using 18 metrics across three categories: employment (percentage of military skill-related jobs, veteran unemployment rate, veteran-owned businesses per veteran population), economy (housing affordability, percentage of veterans below poverty line, veteran income), and quality of life (crime rate, shooting ranges per capita).

Scottsdale, Arizona took top honors, followed by Laredo, Texas, Irvine, California, and Plano and Austin, Texas.

In his State of the City address back in January, Mayor Marty Walsh declared that his administration had effectively ended chronic veterans homelessness in Boston. As explained by Emily Hopkins of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, it was an exceptionally bold claim to make, and not without a few caveats.

“One of the biggest barriers for a returning veteran is finding safe, affordable housing,” Walsh said in a statement last year. “We must do all that we can to honor the men and women who have served our country.”