I had wanted to respond to the above statement for a bit of time, but didn't have the opportunity to assemble a comprehensive answer...
First, let's look at the numbers:
Estimated number of homeless veterans in the United States in 2022, by state -
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...e-us-by-state/
(HUD Report Released Feb 2023)
Did you ever ask yourself why California has such a very large homeless vet population? According to the report, CA has an estimated homeless vet population of 10,395, nearly 5X the number of vets in the second highest state, Florida at 2,279; CA does indeed have a whopping big homeless vet population, but it also has a very long and well documented history of caring for veterans in a fashion well above the standards followed by other states, even those states whose politicians make loud and generalized statements about how very much their states "care" about their vets. It would seem, just by the numbers, that the homeless vets are showing their preference by the way they migrate to CA to seek assistance they really can't seem to get in their own "caring" states; if home really was a hospitable, compassionate place , they would be there, but, apparently, their homes were not...
California history of veteran care goes way back; CA has had Veteran's Homes and facilities dating back to the 1880's when homes the first Veteran's Home was established in San Francisco; now, nearly 140 years later, there are home and facilities for vets across the state:
Welcome to the Veterans Homes of California -
https://www.calvet.ca.gov/calvet-programs/veteran-homes
In addition, there are a number of VA hospitals and other facilities, also across the state to offer support to vets; there really is no lack of support for the vets in CA, but the real problem has been getting the homeless vets to 'come in out of the cold' and take advantage of what is being offered; in a case in point, there is a huge VA facility in West Los Angeles, replete with a Veterans Hospital that is in partnership with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center Complies (one of the finest in the nation and home to the Ronald Reagan Medical Center), so the quality of care there is above the norm for most other VA hospitals; however, large group of homeless vets set up camp on the sidewalks outside the fences surrounding the VA land; the surrounding residential area was understandably concerned and an effort was made to find housing for the vets, but the vets refused to move; the City and County of Los Angeles, through their various social services agencies, did their best to provide services to assist the vets, but the vets would not budge and refused to be moved; resident of the surrounding communities started to question why the VA was not allowing the vets to move onto VA held land (it should be noted the West LA VA property is huge and sprawling; it even encompasses a very large National Military Cemetery); but use of the land for the purposes of housing the vets has hit several snags over the years; the VA land is Federal land and the City, County, and/or State have no real say over the land's use; aside from the Federal reluctance to cede lad for local use, there has been a very long and persistent clamor by real estate developers to try and get a portion of the VA land ceded to them by the VA so they can build luxury housing since the surrounding areas are pretty much fully built out; the developers have been lobbying the VA that if land is ceded for local use for homeless projects, the developers should also get land cede for their own use...
The battles went on for quite some time, but, finally, several yeas ago, a pilot program was proposed and pushed by the local and state governments that the VA finally agreed to accept: a small portion of V land was to be carved out and housing in the form of "tiny houses" were built to get the vets off the sidewalks and into some sort of housing; in addition to the new housing, onsite social services provide by City, County, and State agencies were put in place to offer assistance and counseling in an effort to provide the vets with a path to more permanent housing, employment, and any other needs they might have; it should be noted those services are funded by the local and state governments; well, the tiny houses were built and the Vets were given the offer to move in, but they balked; it seems there were rules put in place to assure the safety and well-being of the residents, and the rules were simple and reasonable: a curfew was set to ensure order, certain items were banned (weapons, alcohol, drugs, etc), and unruly conduct would not be tolerated for the protection of all;; a lot of the 'sidewalk' vets did take advantage of the offers and moved in, some even benefiting from the services and later moving on to permanent housing and finding a better life than on the streets, but a sizeable portion refused, for various reasons, often addiction, to comply with the requirements and remained homeless...
The vets in CA are, indeed, offered a wide number of services and opportunities in this state, but , to paraphrase an old saying goes, "you can lead a homeless vet to a home, but you can't make him live in it"; in addition to the various government agencies in CA, there are a very large number of private, noon-profit secular and religious entities who have outreach programs specifically dedicated to assist vets, homeless or not, to transition into civilian life; and that the main reason why so many homeless vets can be found in CA; the state has a very long history of caring for its residents and providing social services other states balk at extending; we don't have so many homeless vets because we don't care about them, rather it because so many of the other states don't care about them enough...
incidentally, 10,395 homeless veterans may seem like an awful lot, but, given that the total veteran population of CA is 1,525,746, having about .007% still unhoused is not that bad; now if we can only get those remaining vets to be reasonable and take advantage of what Ca is offering...
Veteran Population by State -
https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings...tion-by-state/
One of the reasons I got to this today is I heard a news report on the local news radio about a delegation headed by the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass along wit some LA City Council members who went to Washington DC to see if they could pry loos some Federal funding to address some of the needs of the CITY of LA, the news station has a report traveling along with the delegation and he reported the delegation had met with a number of Cabinet secretaries and agency head and were making some progress; Karen Bass was a member of Congress for 10 years (five terms) and left to run for and win the office of LA mayor and she knows a lot of the DC crowd and knows where to go to get the attention of the right persons; in one of the reports yesterday, the reporter told of a meeting the delegation had with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs where the delegation was seeking more Federal funds for homeless veteran housing in LA; in the meeting, the delegation was told $100 million dollasr had already been allocated, but no one at Veterans Affairs had made LA aware of the potential loss of the funding:
L.A. could lose $100M of federal funding -
https://www.audacy.com/947thewave/ne...ederal-funding
I didn't vote for Bass; I instead voted for her opponent, a billionaire real estate developer (a real one) who left the Ca Sate GOP party when he got fed up the State GOP being overrun by far-right wingnuts, he had been an independent for many years and ran for mayor as a Democrat because he knew an Independent stood little chance of winning and running as GOP in the current CA political climate would have been suicidal; he lost but I still like him and his positions on many issues; however, I've got to give Bass credit for making a real effort to move forward with improving La and its resident's lives; unfortunately for the CA vets, since it would take Congressional action to loosen up that $100 million, as long as the wingnut jackasses are still squabbling amongst themselves and paralyzing the government, I don't see a path forward before the end of the year...
On an upbeat finish, here are examples of recent efforts in LA, in conjunction with the VA to ease homeless vets:
VA opens housing for 59 homeless and at-risk Veterans on West LA Campus -
https://www.va.gov/greater-los-angel...est-la-campus/
Homeless Veterans Transitional Housing, VA Campus Los Angeles -
https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/...s-los-angeles/
...and this is about some of those "tiny homes' put in place on the VA West LA Campus...
From tents to tiny shelters, VA begins aggressive push in LA to end veteran homelessness -
https://www.stripes.com/veterans/202...g-5341053.html
Sorry to have been so lengthy, but its not a simple problem and there are no really simple answers; at least, here in CA, real efforts go on...
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