L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Helps Secure Regulatory Change to House More Homeless Veterans

L.A. Mayor Requests AAGLA’s Assistance and Promises Streamlining and Improved Customer Assistance for all Rental Housing Providers

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough have launched a new initiative to bring more homeless veterans inside and off the streets of Los Angeles. This latest initiative stems from a recent federal regulatory change that Mayor Bass helped initiate – under the previous regulation, thousands of Veterans were homeless because they were forced to choose between receiving disability benefits and housing assistance.

Recent homeless counts released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported homelessness is up 18% nationally, however, within Los Angeles, homelessness is down, including a 10% reduction in street homelessness. This is the first reported decrease in homelessness Los Angeles has experienced in 6 years. Veteran homelessness also decreased in Los Angeles and nationwide, including a decline in Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles County by a reported 22.9%.

From her first day in office as mayor, Mayor Bass declared a state of emergency on homelessness to usher in unprecedented urgency and a commitment to change the failed, broken system that allowed the homelessness crisis to grow. Mayor Bass stated the following about this latest initiative, “I do not accept the humanitarian crisis on our streets, especially when it comes to Angelenos who have served and sacrificed their bodies for our country. This initiative will help connect veterans with property owners who will benefit from guaranteed rent payments and tenants who have proven themselves to be honorable and reliable. If you have apartments available, join us in this patriotic effort to save lives.”

According to a City of Los Angeles press release, this latest Veterans’ homelessness initiative includes:

• Collaborating with the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, the Greater Los Angeles REALTORS, individual property owners and more organizations throughout Los Angeles to increase the number of units available for Veterans with vouchers.
• A new strategic partnership between the Mayor’s Office, the Veterans Administration of Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the local City and County housing authorities to cut the time it takes for veterans to qualify for and receive housing vouchers. This includes additional staff focused on veterans and increased help and streamlining processes for property owners, rental housing providers and landlords seeking to house Veterans.
• Engaging U.S. VETS, a national organization dedicated to housing homeless Veterans, to help connect Veterans to housing.

Also, the City’s press release covering this new initiative assures veterans and housing providers that, Mayor Bass’ office and her administration has taken action to “slash bureaucratic red tape that had left unhoused Veterans outside.” Bureaucratic red tape has often delayed the process for housing homeless individuals and discouraged housing providers from participating in housing voucher programs such as the HUD Section 8 program and HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.

Mayor Bass has made an appeal to the City’s housing providers to get involved and help with housing a homeless veteran. Her office has made assurances that the past process of housing veterans under the HUD-VASH program have been re-worked with the assistance of the Veterans Administration, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) and the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) to focus staff on referring and processing more eligible Veterans to be placed in permanent housing. Under the direction of HACLA’s new leadership, more support is being promised to rental housing providers throughout the application process and also once Veteran tenants have moved in.

Any rental housing providers who are interested in renting to unhoused Veterans or merely want more information about renting your units to Veterans, the City asks that you email HouseOurVets@lacity.org.