LOS ANGELES — It can be surprising to hear music while driving past a homeless encampment near Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Brentwood. Lavon Johnson, 34, an Iraq war veteran, has put a piano next to his tent.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I am just pressing buttons. Whatever is in me, it comes out,” he said.
What comes out is the result of years of trauma from losing friends. Johnson, who has been homeless on and off for some time, could not say how long this last stint has been.
“I don’t know it’s all been one long day,” he said.
His days at the Veterans’ Row encampment are numbered because the site has been selected for a Nov. 1 cleanup. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials with the Homeless Outreach Services Team, or HOST, have stopped by to offer information and services.
“We have been here and conducted the encampment resolution protocol I think four or five times since COVID-19, and it was never this big,” Lt. William Kitchin said.
During the latest attempt, Kitchin and the HOST team came out multiple times a week for the past month trying to get through to those veterans that have been hardest to reach.
“A lot of this is building relationships and I’m a Marine Corps, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran. Some of my HOST team members are veterans. I ask that those veterans come here to better connect with some of them,” Kitchin said.
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