The Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough has announced plans to place over 500 homeless veterans in Los Angeles, including those living along San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood, into housing by the end of the year.
The secretary recently visited “Veterans Row” in Los Angeles, just outside the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Following the visit, this Wednesday McDonough announced two steps addressing Veterans’ homelessness in Los Angeles.The first is to get everyone currently living on “Veterans Row”, around 40 people, into housing by November. The second is to get an additional 500 homeless Veterans in Los Angeles into housing by the end of this year.
McDonough was visiting the encampment weeks after the second homicide in six months on “Veterans Row”. In April a man was arrested for killing an unhoused male veteran man with a vehicle. In September another unhoused male Veteran was killed in a stabbing.
McDonough did not provide details on how the housing initiative will be funded or where the veterans would be housed other than that some could go into transitional housing facilities on the VA campus.
The news comes weeks before the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) announced it will begin clearing the San Vicente encampment on November 1. LASD Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST) is leading the clean-up, following a similar effort over the summer the agency carried out on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. LASD Lieutenant Geoffrey Deedrick, a leader of the HOST team, did not immediately respond to an email asking if McDonough’s announcement impacts the LASD clean-up effort.
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