At a fundraising party for The Veterans Project last Saturday night in Los Angeles, three compelling speakers helped us connect somewhat different stories, all of which involve allegations that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) habitually deprives veterans of services to which they are entitled. CBS News sent a crew to shoot footage of Michael Needham for an upcoming 48 Hours episode about his son, John, who died after overdosing on drugs administered by a VA nurse. John, at the time, was staying at a relative's home, but probably should have been an inpatient.
Mark Rosenbaum, Chief Counsel for the ACLU of Southern California, spoke about a recently filed lawsuit against the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, and the Director of the Greater Los Angeles VA, Donna Beiter, for their failure to provide housing for homeless veterans at the West Los Angeles VA facility. Homelessness in the veteran population is a national scourge, but the situation in Los Angeles is unique because the original property owners who donated the land on which the VA campus now sits, stipulated that it was to be used exclusively for the care and permanent housing of disabled veterans. In apparent violation of the deed, the VA provides no permanent housing there, and leases about 30 percent of the property to various corporations and schools. Nobody knows how much the leaseholders pay, or where the money goes.
There has to be some reason - and probably not a good one - that the VA has been making secret land use deals with private enterprises. The VA itself describes the property as "one of the most valuable parcels of real estate in the western United States." Although no incriminating evidence has yet surfaced, it's fair to wonder if VA officials have been receiving kickbacks in exchange for making sweetheart deals.
Another possibility is that wealthy donors have threatened to withhold campaign contributions from Rep. Henry Waxman, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein if they don't stay quiet about the scandal. Presumably, some of the donors have financial interests in the businesses that are operating on VA land, while others own adjacent property or live nearby and don't want "their" neighborhood "invaded" by thousands of veterans.
Without making any specific accusations, Rosenbaum likened the situation to the land and water use disputes that were dramatized in Roman Polanski's 1974 film, Chinatown.
The ACLU lawsuit has energized veterans' advocates and made our goals more reachable. In addition to Rosenbaum, I've met several of the attorneys who are working on the case pro bono. They are all extremely proud to be lending their formidable talents to the cause, and their sense of outrage on behalf of veterans is a beautiful thing to behold. Likewise, their high level of confidence is quite heartening, and it's always worth pointing out that the ACLU wins the majority of its cases.
Rick Reyes, a Marine veteran who had his own mortgage business but lost it (and his home) when the housing and finance markets collapsed, was our third speaker. He was never actually homeless, but Rick went undercover in a homeless shelter for five months to observe how veterans are treated there, and to figure out how services should be improved. He's now in the initial stages of developing a plan to renovate and sell foreclosed homes. Click here to read a Q&A that former LA Weekly reporter John Seeley did with Rick last week.
This story was also published by The Veterans Project.
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The whole system is a mess and most are un skilled or unwilling. We get left disabled in the road for years or just temp ,fast, and easy for them. They can place you in shelter a nursing facility or a rehab, but there is still little else and little desire to create any thing better, unless they are forced to.
There are few at the VA willing to go the extra mile . Thank God but -
WE NEED LAWYERS TO PRESENT INDIVIDUAL discrimination CASES vs the VA and make the records public to use by others.
The VA also needs to disclose income and stop violating the terms of the property trust there. Why not agree to sell some of that land and HAVE RICK find some 4+bed foreclosures can be made accessible and affordable for long term room rentals outside of high crime areas, maybe in OC suburbs near the Santa Ana or Laguna Hills (LBVA) clinics for vets who have pain +/or ptsd/anxiety? The general public also needs to invest in the welcoming and care of veterans, as they are so easily willing to send troops off to risk and suffer ALL the costs of freedom for them.
Vets should not get the NIMBY treatment as done in West LA or most other places.
Get the homeless veterans in REAL HOUSING NOW; not jammed-packed, prison-like, mandatory 12-Step religious cult WAREHOUSING, but REAL HOUSING with leases, tenant's rights, keys to locking doors, and most important PRIVACY without snooping VA staff & their snitches violating the veteran's rights!
Thanks for getting things going on this mans case. The VA needs to have a super big shake up... The people that we have in charge in Washington need to be run out of the Country. Its seems that every few years something bad comes up with the VA.
War really is a racket. Basically, the propaganda machine spins up to get us into wars, lies keep us there, and trillions get given to military contractors (who fund campaigns that put war-friendly congressmen in power).
For all the lip service people give men in uniform, the real truth is the military industrial complex turns them into hostages. If you don't fund our program, your soliders, marines and airmen will die.
The unthinkable thing is . . . what if we just stopped having decade long wars? Or, if we have them, what if we have to actually honor all our promises and agreements to the people who fight in them (care for all injuries, no stop loss, real education benefits, etc).
Sooner or later this insanity has to end. Right?