The West L.A.VA has been hosting some community meetings recently in order to receive feedback about how the VA might best go about providing more housing and medical/psychological treatment to homeless veterans.
At the last Brentwood Community Council meeting, Larry Watts and others expressed some frustration with the process. It’s the VA’s responsibility to figure out a plan, not the community’s. When a real plan with specifics attached is put forward, then the BCC and others can evaluate it, question it, make suggestions, etc.
The key question that must be addressed, it was pointed out, is “How many homeless veterans will be housed on campus?” Until that question is answered, it’s hard to make specific plans. Planning for 50 beds is a lot different than planning for 5,000.
In the interests of getting some ideas flowing, here’s a proposal for the VA. I fully expect others will have other ideas, and that’s good. Proposals will build upon each other until a truly good plan emerges.
I think the VA should commit to 5,000 units of on-campus housing for homeless veterans. Once a decision along these lines is made, the faster all the pieces will come together into an integrated whole.
How did I come up with 5,000?
There are a reported 4,000 homeless veterans in the L.A. area. The idea is to get them in and out of treatment as quickly as possible – give them temporary shelter and medical attention, then reintegrate them into society.
The VA gives out Housing Choice Vouchers that can be used for housing in the area, but there is a terrific shortage of affordable housing right now, so it’s not clear this program will do enough to eliminate homelessness among veterans by year’s end, which is the stated goal.
So even if 1,000 vouchers can be secured, it’s not clear all these veterans will find a place that will accept them. And even if all 1,000 vouchers can be absorbed, that still leaves 3,000 out on the streets.
I think the VA should build very temporary “FEMA”-type shelter for 500 homeless veterans to start. It takes a while to locate these individuals – and it’s hard to convince them to come in. Many are quite paranoid and view the VA campus as something of a prison. So even 500 units, which might not sound like much, won’t get filled overnight.
But it will take even longer to build permanent housing, so temporary shelter helps fill the gap.
The VA should work with the “Old Veterans Guard” – the folks who have been protesting outside the VA for years now – and empower these people – pay them, even – to go out and find homeless veterans and convince them to come in. Clearly these veteran activists have a passion for this, let’s let them put that passion to good use.
It’s hard to know how many of the 4,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles can be reintegrated into society, and how quickly. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, half these folks need permanent housing.
So, that’s 2,000 permanent housing units we need. Let’s call it 3,000 to be safe. And let’s say our 500 temporary shelters grow to 1,000 over time. Now we’re up to 4,000 units.
Let’s call it 5,000 to be even safer. If for some reason, all 5,000 units don’t get filled by local homeless veterans, there are plenty of homeless veterans in other parts of the country. A reasonable person could argue for 10,000 units, but 5,000 is an ambitious start – and a number people can plan around.
Brentwood as a whole should make the VA our special cause. Our students could teach veterans in recuperation – and the veterans could certainly teach the youngsters a thing or two. I think there should be some kind of war memorial museum on campus. Let the formerly homeless veterans run it.
How many war movies have been made to great profit over the years? A lot. How about if the major studios contribute 1 percent of revenues for every war movie they make to benefiting our homeless veterans? Surely someone reading this has contacts with someone high up in the movie studio world. Go make a pitch!
All the private leases should quickly be resolved in win-win fashion. If UCLA wants a baseball stadium, fine – but then UCLA can do more to provide medical help to veterans. This has already been proposed by UCLA. If Brentwood School wants an athletic facility on VA grounds, let veterans and the VA staff use it, too.
To focus too much on ending the leases altogether distracts from the main business at hand – finding shelter for our homeless veterans. The leases can be phased out over time; the homeless veterans need shelter now.
So there you go – a proposal. Got another idea? Good! Send an email with your idea to jeffhall@brentwoodnewsonline.com and we’ll discuss this more next month.
