The Veterans Collective

Calling all Veterans and their families! Join us on Monday, November 4 from 9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. for the Stand Down: Ending Veteran Homelessness event at Brentwood School East Campus, hosted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. This event is all about supporting Veterans with access to housing assistance, health screenings, free clothing, pet services, VA benefits/claims support, and more. Enjoy a day with breakfast, lunch, live music, and entertainment! Free to attend, but registration is required. To sign up, contact Melina Estes at Melinda.Estes@va.gov or Dominic Lopez at Dominic.Lopez2@va.gov. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/gYCQqfZw #Veterans #SupportOurVeterans #StandDown2024 #VeteranHomelessness

The Los Angeles Times shares quotes from Vets Advocacy leadership that are both misleading and inflammatory. They accuse The Veterans Collective of “misrepresentation” and “misleading the community.” They associate TVC with the shameful illegal activity of the past. All these statements are patently false. TVC has operated with full transparency since it was selected by the VA as principal developer in 2018. Over the years, we have conducted extensive Veteran outreach in good faith. Despite requesting the full survey results from the VA multiple times over a period of months, they were not shared with TVC until yesterday. After reviewing the data, it is clear that a hotel was mentioned by many Veterans. However, the LA Times article is seriously misleading: survey data shows that “hotel/hospitality” ranked 33rd out of 51 possible amenities in the “strong interest” category. Veterans identified a stronger interest in other amenities such as parks, a barber shop, and a farmers market, just to name a few. The Veterans Collective’s mission as principal developer is to build a therapeutic community with supportive housing, services and amenities that create an inclusive and healing environment for formerly homeless and at-risk Veterans. Our task, since we began this project almost six years ago, has been to listen and gather feedback from Veterans in the community, so we can provide the services that are most helpful to their rehabilitation, and ongoing stability and success. The VA survey remains a powerful tool that helps us identify the needs of Veterans, and it is disappointing that the LA Times and other advocates are cherry picking data to further their own agendas. TVC remains laser focused on delivering on the original promise of 1887 and transforming this underutilized medical campus into a supportive home for wounded warriors. The Veterans survey conducted by the VA – even including the data that we did not have access to – shows that we are on the right track, and we will continue this imperative work until no one who served our country is left unhoused on our Los Angeles streets. https://lnkd.in/gv3J_twA

We’re excited to see The Veterans Collective featured in UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate’s latest Affordable Housing Policy Brief. Huge thanks to UCLA Ziman Center and Jack Skelley for highlighting our work in building the nation's largest supportive housing community for #Veterans. Together, we’re ensuring that Veterans who served our country have access to safe, dignified homes, supportive services, and essential amenities. 📰 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gyPYRfym Century Housing | U.S.VETS | Thomas Safran & Associates #VeteransHousing #AffordableHousing #SupportiveHousing

This week, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, The Veterans Collective, and a dedicated group of supporters and volunteers gathered at the West LA VA to assemble 74 "welcome home" kits. We deeply appreciate our community partners for donating the supplies and extend our gratitude to the volunteers who carefully prepared and placed the kits in apartments that formerly unhoused #Veterans will soon call home.

Today, The Veterans Collective received its first building community bookshelf through our partnership with the Los Angeles Public Library! We look forward to connecting many more Veterans across the West LA VA neighborhood to LA Public Library resources and great books. Check out LAPL.org to sign up for a library card, Veterans' resources, and more. #VeteransCommunity #SupportOurVeterans #Veterans

Statement from The Veterans Collective on Judge Carter’s ruling in Powers v McDonough: Judge Carter understands that we have an unprecedented opportunity to do things differently for homeless Veterans in Los Angeles. Judge Carter validated our work as the Principal Developer on the campus in his decision. We are proud that more than 500 new units of housing will be complete and available for homeless Veterans on the campus between late this year and mid next year. However, this is not enough. We can and must accelerate the implementation of Master Plan 2022. We support the judge’s order to commence development on the Town Center within 18 months. In fact, we hope to beat that time line, but we need our partners in Congress to make sure we have the authorities to offer the services and amenities enumerated in MP 2022 that Veterans demand. Unrestricted funds may expedite the development of housing. We are doing our part and have already secured more than $100 million in charitable contributions through our Veterans Promise Campaign. The VA plans to spend more than $350 million more in unrestricted VA PACT Act funding and we need to make sure these funds are deployed quickly. This, together with important regulatory changes at the federal, state and local level will ensure that we can deliver housing to the Veterans who need it most. We look forward to working with the court-appointed special master during this process to make sure we are building the amount and type of housing that is necessary to ensure Veterans in Los Angeles have what they need, where they most need it. Read about the ruling: https://lnkd.in/gYUQF_5Z Century Housing U.S.VETS Thomas Safran & Associates

The Veterans Collective is excited to share the results of the West LA VA community town center survey! In this video, the VA GREATER LOS ANGELES HCS-WEST LA Medical Center Director Rob Merchant presents the insights gathered from Veterans about their vision for the future of the campus, including the planned Veteran town center. As we collaborate with the VA to transform the West LA VA campus into a supportive community with more than 1,200 homes for formerly unhoused Veterans and their families, we’ve sought direct input from Veterans on the amenities, services, and social spaces that will help foster a thriving environment. Check out the video to see the top survey requests and hear from Veterans currently living on campus as they share their thoughts and dreams for this evolving community. #Veterans #homesforVeterans #supportivehousing

The Veterans Collective applauds the new policy changes by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will remove more barriers to housing for Veterans receiving service-connected disability benefits. These changes will significantly enhance access to safe, affordable homes for those who have bravely served our nation. As we work to create the country's largest supportive housing community for Veterans at the West LA VA North Campus, we are immensely grateful to our partners and supporters who share our unwavering commitment to this cause. Together, we are building a brighter future for our Veterans, and will continue to advocate for policies that honor their service. #Veterans #supportivehousing #affordablehousing Century Housing U.S.VETS Thomas Safran & Associates

Earlier this summer, we broke ground on Buildings 158 and 210 at the West LA VA North Campus. We are excited to share a video documenting the day's celebration. These buildings will provide 87 permanent supportive homes for previously unhoused Veterans, and bring us closer to realizing our vision—creating the nation's largest supportive housing community for Veterans. 🎬 Special thanks to Veteran-owned HAMMR Productions for this moving look at our groundbreaking ceremony! #supportivehousing #Veterans U.S.VETS Century Housing Thomas Safran & Associates

In response to a federal judge’s ruling regarding housing for disabled and homeless Veterans on the West Los Angeles campus, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, The Veterans Collective is pleased to see that Judge David O. Carter appears ready to take on the institutional barriers that have slowed the delivery of housing for thousands of homeless and at-risk Veterans and families on the West LA VA Campus. His order clearly identifies how restrictions attached to federal, state, and local funding make critically needed supportive and affordable housing slow to develop, and inaccessible to those who need it most. While we are proud that more than 500 new housing units will be available for homeless Veterans on campus by next year, we share the Judge's belief that the timeline is far too slow. We continue to do our part to free this project from many public restrictions, including securing more than $100 million in charitable contributions through our Veterans Promise Campaign and working with the VA, which has allocated more than $350 million in unrestricted VA PACT Act funding to advance development. But that is not enough. To deliver the permanent supportive housing that LA Veterans deserve, we call on Congress to enact Representative Brad Sherman's “Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act (HUDVA)”, which will eliminate Veteran disability income from the HUD income calculation and ensure that Veterans most in need of housing at the VA are eligible for HUD-VASH and other programs at the West LA VA. We are working to advance this and other legislation at the federal, state and local levels to ensure that LA Veterans who need housing most can receive it at the West LA VA. We are grateful to our extensive network of supporters working alongside us to make this transformation possible and for maintaining faith in our efforts.