Bonin Hopeful as Mayor’s Homeless Pledge Extended

At an event with First Lady Michelle Obama in July 2014, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti pledged to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. In recent reports, he stated the goal may not be reached and could take longer to achieve.

According to Los Angeles Daily News, Garcetti spoke to the LA News Group editorial board on Thursday, Aug. 27 and said the effort may take an additional six months and not all homeless veterans will be housed.

In a statement to the Palisadian-Post, Councilmember Mike Bonin said he is disappointed but not disheartened that it will take longer to meet the Mayor’s goal of ending veteran homelessness in LA.

“Los Angeles has housed a record number of homeless veterans, but the population in need keeps increasing,” Bonin said. “Our cities are left to deal with an epidemic of homelessness, caused by an array of factors. We need all hands on deck from every level of government. We’ve got strong and willing partners at all level of government—federal, state, county and city.”

Contributing factors that may be inhibiting Garcetti’s ability to reach his goal may be strains on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus (a focal point of controversy for years) and the increase of veteran homelessness in LA.

The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count released its numbers in January and LA has the largest number of homeless veterans in the country – 4,016 in 2015. Pacific Palisades participated in the Count for the first time this year.

The White House Fact Sheet on preventing and ending veteran homelessness, presented by Michelle Obama in April of 2015 says, “Ending veteran homelessness does not mean that we can prevent every veteran from facing a housing crisis in the future. But it does mean that when and if a housing crisis does occur, we can have systems in place to identify and quickly house all of our veterans.”

The West LA VA has been working with community organizations like the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC) and local veterans to create a Master Plan to be released this fall, which will lay out a strategy to provide services and housing to veterans. Earlier this year the West LA campus opened new buildings and  housing for veterans.

“Working with service organizations and neighborhood organizations, such as the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness, I’m confident we can continue making progress and can continue housing people in record numbers,” Bonin said.