geoff: On any given night there
are more than 65,000 homeless
people living in Los Angeles.
There is not enough affordable
housing, and even when there is,
some people struggle to get into
those units, including veterans
on disability.
Stephanie sy looks at some of
the obstacles leading to l.a.'s
homeless population, the largest
in the country.
Stephanie: On the sprawling
388-acre campus of the west los
Angeles V.A., daughter with palm
trees, a construction boom
underway.
Three new buildings have gone up
this year to provide qualified
veterans low-income housing.
63-year old jack Vicente has
been settled in his gleaming new
studio apartment for a month.
The army vet was working as a
bellman at a hotel when he
suffered a back injury and was
let go from his job.
Jack: And that's what led to me
being pretty much homeless for
the next four or five months
until I was able to go to the
V.A. And the V.A. Helped me get
into a lovely, secure place like
this.
In my opinion, the promise that
they made when I joined up.
They're really keeping their
word now.
Stephanie: But there are other
veterans who feel the opposite.
Where are you living now?
Lavon: Right there.
Stephanie: 36-year old Lavon
Johnson, an army veteran lives
right outside the V.A. Campus in
a tent.
He was living in one of these
tiny shelters on the V.A.
Campus, but he says it caught
fire and he was removed from the
temporary housing program.
Johnson has been chronically
homeless for more than a decade.
Even as new apartment buildings
co-opt on -- go up on the V.A.
Campus, he is locked out.
You applied to stay at one of
these buildings and you were
rejected?
Lavon: Yes.
Stephanie: Why?
Lavon: My annual income was too
much by $200.
Stephanie: Johnson's income is
actually his monthly disability
check.
While deployed in Iraq with the
first cavalry division he says
his unit was hit by a rocket.
Lavon: I get shot back, I land
on my feet then I fall over.
I remember falling over, hit my
head, and it was just blank
after that.
Stephanie: Due to a diagnosis of
serious mental illness, he
receives full compensation of
over $4000 a month.
So you would think that would be
enough to rent an apartment
here?
Lavon: Not in California.
Plus, I have bills and other
projects I have to pay off every
month, too, so all my money is
gone.
I don't have anything for myself
for the month.
It's a vicious cycle.
Stephanie: Johnson falls into a
category of veterans who stand
on a so-called benefits cliff.
He gets so much in disability
compensation that other
essentials, like housing, fall
off.
It is estimated 8000 homeless
veterans around the country may
lose out on low-income housing
opportunities because their
benefits put them over income
caps.
Keith: This particular building
has very strict eligibility
criteria.
Stephanie: We met Keith Harris,
who oversees the V.A. Efforts to
house homeless veterans in la,
in one of the shiny new
apartments on campus.
A veteran has to be at least 62
and make under $42,000 a year to
qualify to live in this
building.
Keith: We know what the
solutions are.
Either we get eligibility caps
raised so that veterans who are
receiving V.A. Benefits can
qualify or stop counting V.A.
Benefits as income.
Stephanie: Harris says another
problem is that other dedicated
housing lies in parts of la
where many unhoused vets don't
want to live, so they don't use
the affordable housing vouchers
that are available to them.
Keith: There are close to 50
buildings.
There are a couple hundred
vacancies in those buildings.
Stephanie: Why are there
vacancies?
Keith: It's maddening.
I want to acknowledge it's very
frustrating.
You've got thousands of homeless
veterans.
You've got hundreds of vacant
units.
You've got thousands of unused
vouchers.
The biggest problem filling
those is one of location.
Many of those are far away from
the medical center.
Stephanie: And the medical
center is located on the
westside of Los Angeles where
the average rent for a
one-bedroom apartment is more
than $3000 a month.
A housing voucher or disability
check doesn't go far here.
Keith: There simply are not
enough units for everybody who
needs one, much less could
afford one.
Stephanie: As challenging as it
is to build affordable housing
on the V.A. Campus, it is more
onerous elsewhere in los
Angeles.
From historically discriminatory
zoning laws to community
resistance, it's often an uphill
battle.
Few know that better than Dora
Leong Gallo, the head of a
community of friends, which has
been providing housing for
people with mental health
disorders for 35 years.
Just like some veterans with
disabilities, some people with
serious mental illnesses in the
general population benefit from
having support services where
they live.
A quarter of la's homeless
population has these disorders.
Dora: The concept was to build
apartment communities where
people had a lease and that
there would be services onsite
in the buildings to help ensure
that people had the services
they need to live independently.
Stephanie: Leong Gallo walks us
through the lengthy process of
developing what's called
permanent supportive housing.
Dora: The first thing we have to
do is find property.
Stephanie: That's also the first
roadblock.
Dora: Because we're kind of
restricted in where we can build
apartment buildings, it drives
the cost higher as well because
we are all competing for the
same limited land.
Stephanie: According to one
study, more than 70-percent of
residential areas in the los
Angeles area are zoned for
single family homes, a planning
policy that has roots in racial
discrimination.
Dora: Simultaneously, we are
looking for financing.
Stephanie: That's the next
roadblock.
A nonprofit has to compete for
funding from various sources,
all with different requirements,
restrictions, and timelines.
Dora: And along the same time we
are also meeting with the
community.
Stephanie: And that, many
housing developers say, is one
of the biggest roadblocks.
Even while californians have
approved measures to increase
funding to address homelessness,
not in my backyard attitudes
have blocked or delayed many
projects.
Dora: When you don't allow this
type of housing to be built,
then people are forced to live
further away.
People are forced to live in
their cars.
Stephanie: 70-year-old Wallace
Richardson had been living out
of his truck for more than a
year when he was linked up with
one of the 50 buildings
developed by a community of
friends.
He's been in his silverlake
apartment for more than a
decade.
One of his last jobs was with
americorps.
Wallace: During the time that I
was an outreach worker, you
know, I got a firsthand look at
myself.
I thought that I was mentally
sane, but I wasn't, you know, I
had issues.
And the issues I had was coming
up from being abused as a child.
Stephanie: What has it been like
to have this stable housing for
the last ten years?
Wallace: It has made all the
difference in the world.
In fact, it has saved my life
because I was on a downhill
spiral.
Stephanie: Back near the va
campus, Lavon Johnson is still
waiting for his lifejacket and
he's losing his patience.
Lavon: I can't sit still knowing
that people like me are getting
screwed over by them, blatantly.
Stephanie: He's part of a recent
lawsuit that accuses the V.A. Of
not providing enough affordable
housing to the neediest
veterans.
The plaintiffs demand 3500
permanent supportive units on or
near the V.A. Campus.
My understanding is there are
lawsuits going back to 2011
saying why isn't the V.A. Doing
more to house homeless veterans
here?
Why now?
Why just in the last couple of
years?
Keith: The draft master plan was
put into place as part of
resolving the first lawsuit.
And it had a very aggressive
timeline on the units that would
be built.
Turned out very unrealistically.
Stephanie: The V.A. Realized
recently that if sites were
prepared ahead of time for
developers they could speed up
, the process.
They've already spent $70
million on things like leveling
land and adding underground
utilities to make sites build
ready.
Keith: That's why it looks like
a rush.
This is the way it should have
been happening all along.
Stephanie: The agency is aiming
to complete 1200 units by 2030.
Whether one of those units is in
Lavon Johnson's future remains
in doubt.
For the pbs newshour, I'm
Stephanie sy in Los Angeles.
♪♪