According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, there are 47,725 military veterans living on the streets on any given night. Veterans make up one of the largest populations of homeless Americans, but it’s hard to pin down why they are so susceptible to homelessness.

One factor that may send a veteran on a downward spiral is their military discharge.

The Department of Veterans Affairs found in a recent study that ‘bad discharge papers,’ aka anything less than an honorable discharge, can become a ‘pathway to homelessness.’ Because VA benefits are tied directly to the length of a veteran’s service, rank and discharge, possessing bad papers can cut off a veteran’s access to vital VA programs. As a result, veterans with bad papers are five to seven times more likely to become homeless.

KPCC Radio Los Angeles found that more than half a million veterans received bad discharge papers since 1990.

According to data obtained by KPCC from the Defense Manpower Data Center, more than 615,000 Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force veterans were discharged with less-than-honorable discharges from 1990-2015.

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Co.) is a retired Marine officer and said that high a number is “very alarming.”

“I mean, I think the numbers are staggering.”

Coffman says in his day, a servicemember caught for a minor offense might’ve been denied the chance to reenlist, but would not have been kicked out with bad paperwork that denied them benefits afterwards.

It’s not unheard of for a veteran to receive a less than honorable discharge for bunk reasons. In 2013, Staff Sgt. Eric James secretly recorded 20 hours of therapy sessions and doctors appointments to prove that he was wrongfully discharged by the Army. When his story came to light in October 2015, it was found that the Army dismissed 22,000 soldiers simply for suffering from mental illness.

“We put out an unprecedented number of troops for minor infractions, and I believe a lot of them were suffering from PTSD,” said Rep. Coffman told the New York Times.