Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, West Los Angeles Campus, Buildings 205 & 208

Remarks (as prepared): Tod Lipka, thanks for that kind introduction and, more importantly, for your relentless work teaching any who doubt it that housing first works, that—as you’ve said—we solve homelessness by creating homes and helping people find belonging to a community.

Congressman Lieu, thank you for your unwavering support in this fight. Mayor Bass, good to see you. Long ago you committed to building communities rather than tearing them down, to turning despair into hope, and never looked back. Thank you for your example.

Where’s Mike Fisher? Mike, what a great bookend to your 30 years of devotion Vets. Thanks, Mike, and congratulations.

Thanks to Dr. Steve Braverman—Army Vet, leading our great public servants doing God’s work on this campus—and Larry Van Kuran, General Hopper, and their teams for such steadfast support of Vets and helping implement this Master Plan. Without your work, we might not be standing here today.

Let me ask all our Veterans to stand if you’re able. Thank you for your service.

There are so many good people here today—Vets, Vet advocates, organizers, local and national leaders and legislators, builders, friends, so many to thank. When VA Chief of Staff Tanya Bradsher helped cut the ribbon on Building 207 in February, she said that to do the best work for Veterans, to make the most progress for the Vets who deserve our very best, well, that takes all of us.

That’s exactly right. You exemplify that critical and fundamental requirement for progress—strong partnerships, singular devotion to ending Veteran homelessness in this country. And it’s so important that everyone understands—your work, your resourcefulness and innovative approaches, your continued successes in LA infuse critical momentum and justifiable hope across the country.

It’s thanks to the kind of work you do that the number of Vets experiencing homelessness has declined by more than 55% since Secretary Shinseki charged VA and the country to end Veteran homelessness—streamlining referrals to reduce wait times for admission to housing and expanding community partnerships, working together so more Vets qualify for financial assistance and more property owners sign leases with previously homeless Veterans. It’s because of that kind of work, and so much more, that last year over 1,300 Vets got into permanent housing in LA, the most, by the way, of any city in America. And it’s because of you that I know this year we’ll see another 38,000 Vets experiencing homelessness make it into permanent housing, that here in LA over 1,500 Vets will get permanent housing placements this year, that we’ll do everything we can to ensure they don’t return to homelessness.

That means we keep working together to keep opening doors. We need more landlords and housing providers renting to Vets who are in VA homeless programs. We need more business owners hiring homeless and formerly homeless Vets. We need to remove any barriers to Vets’ access to affordable housing. Some severely disabled Vets are not eligible for housing on campus because of the VA disability benefits they receive, and we’re working to fix that. And we need every American to pitch in, even if it’s simply reaching out or helping a Vet reach out to our National Call Center for Homeless Veterans—877-424-3838.

In short, we have to depend on one another. We have to depend on one another, keep our arms around each other, and wrap our arms around our Veterans. I’m thinking of Vets like John Schnell, who’ll be a new resident here. Let me tell you a little about John.

John’s from Brooklyn, New York. He comes from a long line of Vets. His great-grandfather fought in World War I, grandfather in World War II, dad in Vietnam with the United States Marines, and one of his brothers is deployed right now to the African continent. John’s dad was a New York City cop, and so John learned early what service is about by seeing it every day, living in a community of public servants—other police officers, other Veterans, firemen, emergency service workers,  the kind of people who are the very heart and soul of this country. And when you ask John why he joined the Army, he gets straight to the point. 9/11. On that horrific day, his home was attacked. He could see the plumes of smoke across the East River. He saw debris falling from the sky.

Thankfully, John’s dad lived through that, but his friends lost mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. And so John volunteered, joined the Army, Infantry, and in short order he was in Iraq with the 3^rd Infantry Division, the Rock of the Marne, who fought the Battle of Baghdad. John served honorably and courageously, and when he came home, one thing led to another, and he found himself homeless in Los Angeles.

Well, John’s been working with New Directions for Veterans here on campus—a program founded by two formerly homeless Vietnam Veterans. Vets helping Vets, there’s nothing better. And soon, he’ll move into Building 208. That’ll be home, a place, John said, “where I can pull it all back together … get things squared away.”

You know, every Veteran experiencing homelessness has a story like John’s. Every one has hopes. Every one has dreams. And our job is to fight like hell, together, to serve them as well as they have served all of us. And we’re going to keep fighting like hell to do just that, until the term homeless Veteran is a thing of the past, until every Vet has a safe, permanent place to call home.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless our troops, our Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. And may we always give them our very best, just like you’re doing right here.  

Let’s cut those ribbons.