Building 209 will provide permanent supportive housing for 54 homeless veterans.
On June 16, the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration reached a milestone, with the official opening of Building 209.
The building will provide permanent supportive housing for 54 homeless veterans.
VA Deputy Secretary Scott Blackburn was on hand to welcome the 54 veterans during the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The VA partnered with Veteran Housing Partnership and Step Up on Second, a nonprofit organization that will operate as the service provider and property manager of Building 209.
Building 209 is part of the larger draft Master Plan, which will including an additional 100 units of permanent supportive housing at Buildings 205 and 208. A developer was recently selected to begin renovating those two buildings.
At the official opening, Congressman Ted Lieu sent a statement that read, in part, “This ribbon cutting represents a step forward in restoring the West LA VA property to the Old Soldiers’ Home it was always intended to be. I join with all Veterans, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the communities of West Los Angeles in “welcoming home” 54 Veterans who have been experiencing homelessness into their new home at Building 209 on the West Los Angeles VA Campus.”
Lieu added, “No Veterans who fought for our country should ever need to fight for a roof over their heads. Today’s ribbon cutting helps us move forward on our unwavering mission to honor the debt we owe our nation’s Veterans.”
In an OpEd in the Daily News, Director of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (GLA) Ann Brown, wrote about the VA’s ongoing commitment to helping get veterans off the street and providing not just housing but also support services designed specifically to meet the needs of veterans.
She stated, “We are actively aligning our resources and collaborating with our national homeless program office and community partners to find a home for every veteran who is homeless. We have enacted a focused plan that includes a hiring surge to increase the number of staff providing outreach and clinical services to homeless veterans. We have refined strategies to improve data quality, which helps us more accurately target services to the most vulnerable homeless veterans and realign resources to support these efforts.”
