On any given night in America, there are approximately 3,700 Veterans who go to sleep without a home, with one out of ten of them living in Los Angeles County. VA leadership is committed to ending the crisis of Veteran homelessness through a housing-first model.
On July 19 and 20, VA Chief of Staff Tanya Bradsher visited the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System’s (VAGLAHS) West Los Angeles campus to reaffirm that commitment.
“Ending Veteran homelessness is a top priority for VA,” said Bradsher. “We’re joining together with community groups, local officials, oversight boards and Veterans themselves to drive progress on this issue here in LA. Successes achieved here and lessons learned help inform VA’s Veteran homelessness programs across the nation.”
[Left to Right] Sr. Facilities Manager Jose Perez, CEO Amy Turk, Sr. Director of Clinical Services Myong Kim, Executive Director of LA Homeless Service Authority Heidi Marston, VA Chief of Staff Tanya Bradsher, and Senior Clinician Johanna Lopez greet each other as they meet to discuss their joint commitment to supporting women experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.
VA is addressing immediate needs through ambitious national and local partnerships, such as with HUD, state and local governments, and local service organizations and non-profits. Through these partnerships and with a focus on evidence-based models, VA will be able to lift Veterans from homelessness to housing.
Throughout the visit, Bradsher met with VA partners, such as members of VAGLAHS’ Veterans and Community Oversight Engagement Board and the executive director of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority. Additionally, the Chief of Staff saw first-hand the magnitude of Los Angeles’ homeless crisis at the area known as Skid Row in LA’s Central City East.
VAGLAHS is aggressively addressing the immediate crisis with a variety of programs, such as the low-barrier/low entry Care Treatment Rehabilitative Services initiative that was opened during COVID-19 to provide a safe space for Veterans, homeless shelters both on campus, and in the community. One of those is “A Bridge Home,” which offers supportive housing where Veterans can live for up to a year with a variety of available services and leads finally to permanent supportive housing and vouchers for permanent housing.
VA shares the goal with community leaders of ensuring the West Los Angeles campus benefits Veterans and their families in its intended use as a home for Los Angeles’ most vulnerable Veterans. Thanks to the West Los Angeles VA Campus Improvement Act, which was signed by President Biden last month, VA is now allowed to spend revenue generated through land-use agreements to help fund housing, services and infrastructure upgrades, whereas previously revenue was only allowed to be spent on maintenance. The 2016 Draft Master Plan for the West LA campus outlines VA’s intent to upgrade healthcare facilities while also transforming the more than 388-acre property into a vibrant, sustainable community for Veterans with access to 1,200 units of supportive housing, healthcare, benefits, employment opportunities, and a wide range of supportive services.
VAGLAHS leadership and groups they have partnered with on the Draft Master Plan shared their insight with the VA Chief of Staff on the status of the plan.
“We are continually working toward meeting VA’s goal of ending Veteran homelessness,” said Steven Braverman, MD, director of VAGLAHS. “Ms. Bradsher’s visit is a clear indication from VA’s executive leadership that they will resource and support the collaborative development of our upcoming revised Master Plan. By working with our community and governmental partners, VAGLAHS will be better enabled to provide our most vulnerable Veterans with the care they need.”
The Master Plan is a 30-year project, which receives review and revision every five years. To learn more about how VA is executing its commitment to ending Veteran homelessness, please visit https://westladraftmasterplan.org/.
Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness are strongly encouraged to contact the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at (877) 4AID-VET (877-424-3838) for assistance. Veterans in Los Angeles can call the Welcome Center at VA Greater Los Angeles at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1 for immediate assistance.
More information on VA’s homeless Veteran programs can be found at https://www.va.gov/homeless/.
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The V A is not trying to help veteran’s. It’s just a show a and tell . The V A is supposed
Be there for veteran instead it’s fighting against them. Where is the support that Lincoln’s promise. I hear you my brother’s
and sisters. Tell your story to the media,
Hold up sign. Let your voice be heard. We must stand together , when we stand together our voice will be heard.
Ya we will see. You guys dont really care too much about Veterans being homeless. I was in a group that lived on the street doing peer outreach to these vets getting robbed for their checks and beat up for their meds. We did that for 5 months until the Government officials in Phoenix shut us down.
I have recently fell on hard times and me, my wife and our 3 dogs have been sleeping in our car and couch surfing for the last 6 months.. Went to VA to get help was told”we can give you a bed in a shelter but not your wife our dogs!” Sorry but she is my caregiver and my dogs are service trained. Im not leaving them out while i have a bed.
Went ti HUD Vash. Was told cause im 100% disabled they cant help. Same with all these other “veteran housing things” like Kingman Vet village. Same thing i make too much..
Oroblem with moving aint our income. Its cause nobody wants 3 Pit Bulls on their property. Even though my digs are trained and behaved. Also my past criminal record from over 10 years ago henders us..
But ya let me know when yall ready to help..
Gid Bkess our teooos and veterans and their famalies.. Bless those really trying to make a difference.. Lord also bless those that are our enemies they must not have been properly educated
Rant Over
Also David .You can spend your whole life fighting against us disabled vets .But there’s enough patriots on the front lines of healthcare that appreciates what sacrifices we made for this country.And they will walk hand in hand with us until something good happens for us
Those veterans do have problems weather it’s drug abuse or alcohol abuse it’s still a problem .You sit their with that querky white jacket and I know you didn’t have any combat .But most of these guys .If you’re not gonna help fix the problem .Quit bashing them.Youre just jealous cause you don’t have benefits
VA’s no.1 Problem classifying everyone as a veteran..
1ST
COMMENT NO.1..WHOEVER WROTE IT IS AN AZZ HOLE
THE ARTICLE IS joke and A. Bunch of B S
PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
ESPECIALLY
IF YOU ARE A BLACK VETERAN
Who makeup lrg pct of homelessness
ASK ME WHY
CONTACT ME
I’m not impressed. In June I contacted the VA Homeless program for a family member. I called again today. Promises were made and haven’t been kept. COVID-19 impacted this veteran and ultimately lead to his homeless state.
We can’t even end Veteran Unemployment/Underemployment by getting the Veterans Benefits Administration to commit to ending arbitrary denials of Vocational Rehabilitation (Readiness) & Employment Benefits. Even with Congressional mandates, it takes an act of a Congress to access the VR&E track 3-5.
So ending Veteran homelessness?Really?
V.A. Housing is a joke. They tell you where you can live and stuff the money into the greedy pockets of the non profits that offer first class junk.
I am a homeless vet for the past year and a half. I have been inl8ne for a HUD vash voucher since March. It is such a slow process. I was told I would have it in 2 months time. It has been 5 months and the application has not been sent to the housing authority. I am currently in an SRO and my time runs out here in about 3 weeks. I am not homeless due to an eviction. I am homeless because I got ran out of my 21 year rent control apartment in Silverlake due to greed and got scammed by my landlord in San diego. I pay my rent and still can’t get the VA to get me help with housing. What happens in 3 weeks when I will literally be on the streets with nowhere to sleep orbathe or to call home. Less talk and more action is needed. Put a fire under it. I won’t last out here much longer
After 32 years in the military and after working in a VA ER for 10 years, it is my experience that many homeless veterans don’t want a home or any responsibility. They are happy to collect their pensions and drink it away in cheap motels until the money runs out and then show up at the ER and pull the suicide card until their direct deposit hits the bank. As soon as the money hits the bank, they want to leave and we didn’t see them again for another 3 weeks, or until they were brought back to the ER for alcohol poisoning, OD or their livers finally couldn’t take it anymore. Then they eventually just drink themselves to death.
That is not true. It may be for some veterans. But until you have walked a mile in every homeless veterans shoes don’t judge. I was a homeless veteran until 7-1_21. I get a pension however due to an incident where I ended up incarcerated and served my time the V a and other place that say they help veterans didn’t want to help me. They judged me. I am not saying all personnel at V a or places that help veterans judge. But as I stated some did and still do. I can only speak for myself. Until you can get to the bottom of what their problem is then maybe that is the only way they can cope
I am not making excuses for them. I am just trying to see both sides. I am not an alcoholic or a drug user. Like I said I was a homeless veteran
The homeless veterans want nothing to do with the VA’s jammed-packed bunk-bedded prison-like hell-hole shelters with 24/7 “Jesus Saves’ & 12-Step religious AA/NA cult “Higher Power” nonsense shoved down their throats by evil hateful people like you.
I have been hearing this for many years. Quit posting such stuff. I hope you realize our government has given the narrative of we are going to end veteran homelessness since from my memory about seven secretaries ago. These kind of posts never do anything (in a positive progression) to end the very think you repetitively claim you are going to do. I think it rather kicks a veteran in the gut on a continual basis. I find this offensive. Veterans and their families deserve better than this. The ones that are alive and the ones that have perished either in battle or from consequences of service should not be shoveled this garbage. How is that electronic health records retrieval program going?
Tell’m Brother!!
You should give veterans a 1500 dollar voucher and let them find there own place
And señd a voucher for 1200 dollars a month as HUD vash is not working.
I’m a incomplete quadrallergic with other
Major health issues and I’ve been bouncing around from place to place for
4 years. .you can send millions of people
Money but you can’t take care of it 37,00
You need to get your act together
ba
As a homeless veteran that just happened to stumble on this I find it all quite interesting. I’ll get help eventually and so will many others. All in good time.