It should not take years to get veterans into housing: Ted Lieu

For so many of us, the conclusion of 2021 was bittersweet. It was a difficult year with numerous challenges, but we’ve made incredible strides on managing the COVID-19 pandemic, including rolling out miraculous vaccines to millions of Americans and preventing thousands of deaths in the process. In Congress, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot – including historic investments in infrastructure and American workers through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue plan.

Despite last year’s difficulties, I am hopeful about the future, and what’s possible when we focus our energy and willpower on building a brighter future.

One notable accomplishment we made in 2021 is close to my heart – making strides in addressing the veteran homelessness crisis. The homeless veterans crisis is not only a national disgrace, it affects our country’s ability to field the best military in the world. We promise young men and women that if they join our all-volunteer military, our country will take care of them. We promise educational benefits, quality health care, and resources to help build a successful life after their service in uniform. We cannot reasonably say we’re upholding our end of the bargain when over 37,000 veterans across our country find themselves homeless on any given night in the United States.

We started 2021 with an unacceptable number of homeless veterans. With a new Administration in charge, we’ve seen leaders finally ready to meet this tough challenge head-on. In early October, we welcomed VA Secretary Denis McDonough to the West Los Angeles VA to discuss veteran homelessness and what the campus is and can be doing to help better support homeless veterans. A month later, all the veterans who were living in an encampment on a sidewalk outside of the campus are either staying at the West LA VA, in hotels, or have permanent housing.

I’m pleased that, as we begin 2022, these veterans now have housing, and so do the 500 additional veterans Secretary McDonough committed to helping during his visit. This is incredible progress made possible thanks to the hard work of the VA Secretary, Los Angeles County, community groups and veterans. We need to continue this momentum.

Each case of homelessness is unique. Some homeless veterans continue to work but cannot afford the rent. Some have had bad luck, or mental health challenges, or substance abuse issues or legal trouble or a combination of various factors. The difficulty in mitigating homelessness does not mean we cannot find a solution. It just means we need to work harder.

This year’s swift work was made possible by unlocking the resources and the collective determination to tackle challenges. When Sen. Dianne Feinstein and I got the West Los Angeles Leasing Act signed into law, our goal was to spur the revitalization of the West LA VA campus, with a particular focus on helping homeless veterans. The result was a new master plan to redevelop the campus to ensure it meets the evolving needs of LA County veterans, including building as many as 1,600 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans. One building is complete and three others are scheduled to be ready in 2022.

With the Biden Administration’s commitment to addressing veteran homelessness, we’ve been able to be more creative in meeting the needs of our local veterans. County and local leadership have helped champion bridge solutions to help veterans. The West LA VA’s Care, Treatment and Rehabilitative Services initiative has worked with community nonprofits to bring tiny shelters to the VA campus so that unhoused veterans have clean, comfortable living options on the VA campus.

The VA has also created safe camping and parking environments on campus where social workers and medical professionals can provide veterans with healthcare, case management, meals, and other services as they work towards helping them find permanent housing. Additional legislation I’ve authored has helped ensure the VA has the authority to use its resources to work with community partners to tackle homelessness.

The least we can do for our nation’s heroes is help them get a permanent roof over their heads. There is a lot of work to do to help the roughly 4,000 veterans still unhoused in LA County. We need to work harder to expedite housing placement for veterans.  We need more incentives for landlords to take veterans in as tenants. We need HUD and housing authorities to work together and relax the rules that will get veterans into housing sooner. And we need all the layers of government to work together to help the principal developer get the tax credits and financing needed to build affordable housing faster.

It should not take years to get veterans into housing. We have the legislative tools and the institutional determination to speed up these efforts. Recent successes offer strong evidence that we can do this. It takes commitment from the top, which we now have, and community willpower, which is stronger than ever. If we have even one iota of the courage that our veterans had in service, we can get this done. I think this is a New Year’s resolution we can all get behind.

Ted Lieu represents the 33rd congressional district.