You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 31<br />
"Whether a veteran needs assistance addressing physical or<br />
mental health, a substance use disorder, justice involvement,<br />
or anything else… we're going to be there to help," he said.<br />
The VA campus in West Los Angeles is 388 acres. The<br />
land was donated to the government in 1888 by a wealthy<br />
California landowner who wanted the area to be used to<br />
provide health care and homes for disabled veterans. There<br />
are several historic structures on the campus, and most of the<br />
buildings were built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style,<br />
with their characteristic red-tile roofs and stucco walls.<br />
The campus contains a nine-hole golf course, a Japanese<br />
garden and plenty of open space. Many of the buildings<br />
now sit vacant, some because of their states of disrepair.<br />
Others are vacant due to the coronavirus pandemic pushing<br />
employees out of their offices.<br />
In one part of the campus, construction workers are restoring<br />
two large buildings into permanent housing units. The VA<br />
expects to have 186 apartments ready for use by the end of<br />
the year.<br />
The Department of Housing and Urban Development<br />
estimated in January 2020 that 37,252 veterans experienced<br />
homelessness in a single night. An estimated 10% of those<br />
veterans lived in Los Angeles.<br />
McDonough also spoke about two successes from last year.<br />
In October, McDonough vowed to get all homeless veterans<br />
living in the area known as "veterans row" in Los Angeles<br />
into housing by Nov. 1. At the time, about 40 people lived<br />
along veterans row, a homeless encampment just outside the<br />
West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.<br />
McDonough said the agency succeeded in placing Los<br />
Angeles homeless veterans into housing by the deadline.<br />
In November, the secretary promised the VA would house<br />
an additional 500 homeless veterans in Los Angeles in time<br />
for the holidays. In December, VA Deputy Secretary Donald<br />
Remy said the VA had surpassed that goal and found housing<br />
for 537 veterans.<br />
Of those veterans, 46% have found permanent housing using<br />
government vouchers, and the rest have been accepted into<br />
temporary housing, Remy said.<br />
In April, McDonough signed an updated plan for a longdelayed<br />
housing development intended to help solve the<br />
veteran homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.<br />
The 656-page plan, called Master Plan <strong>2022</strong>, contains details<br />
for a major construction project on the VA campus in West<br />
Los Angeles. The updated plan calls for more than 1,000<br />
housing units for homeless veterans to be under construction<br />
within one to five years. The plan states 220 additional units<br />
will be built within six to 10 years, and the VA will add 350<br />
more units sometime after that.
Change language