Clothing Left Behind at Airports Goes to Homeless Veterans

If you ever left clothing at the airport, there's a chance that it might be in the hands of a veteran. Through the Clothe a Homeless Hero Act, the Transportation Security Administration donates lost clothing at airport security checkpoints to some veterans' organizations and charities.

Reagan National Airport is just one airport that recently joined the effort and packed two months, or 180 pounds of clothes into trucks for them to be transported to VVA distribution centers, the Washington Post reports.The forgotten clothing used to be donated for police-dog scent training or they were simply thrown away.

"Now we're going to be segregating clothing at our lost-and-found office," Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokesman Rob Yingling told the Washington Post. "If it's coming from the checkpoint, it's going to the veterans. If it's lost elsewhere in the airport, it'll go to the canines."

According to Yingling, hundreds of pounds of clothes are forgotten at National Airport every year. The clothing includes discarded outwear to entire suitcases full of clothes. The lost-and-found system varies by airport. In some states, unclaimed non-clothing items are picked up by government agencies and are sold on sites like GovDeals.com. At many airports, depending on their policy,
clothing will go to local veterans' organizations.

Rep. Kathy Hochul introduced the Clothe a Homeless Hero Act last summer. She said the law was inspired by veterans she met in Afghanistan and seeing a room full of left behind clothing at an airport in Buffalo, New York.

Th legislation was approved by Congress in late 2012 and it was signed by President Obama in January, just before he started his second term.

This isn't the only legislation that was introduced to help the troops and veterans. In March, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who happens to be a veteran, introduced legislation to ease airport screening procedures for wounded or disabled troops and veterans. Some airports already have a special screening process for veterans, but this legislation would make it mandatory for every airport.

"It's the first time I've seen congressional law benefit the individuals it was intended for," Sharon Hodge, VVA's associate director of government affairs said.