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NEWS OPINION VIDEO SHOWS SCHEDULE
Al Jazeera America logo Anthony Suau for Al Jazeera America
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Making a home for every homeless
vet
by Haya El Nasser - @hayaelna | March 2, 2014
With the largest population of homeless veterans, Los Angeles vies to meet
White House goal: homes for all by 2015
Topics: Homelessness, Veterans, California
1. A fixture on Sunset Boulevard CHAPTERS
LOS ANGELES — On a block of Sunset Boulevard near Normandie 1. A fixture on Sunset
Avenue in
Hollywood, Christopher “Cat” Gill is a fixture. His shopping cart Boulevard
is overflowing.
Newspaper clippings about his latest obsession, the Super Bowl, are plastered
2. City on a
of veterans
street facade. He’s animated. He paces. He bursts into laughter. He bounces from one
3. The team’s all here
topic to the next.
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4. The winning ticket
One day last month he decided to shave. He grabbed a broken disposable razor from
5. The long road home
his cart and dry-shaved vigorously, looking at his reflection in a cigar shop window. He
pulled back his long blond hair into a ponytail. The razor snapped 6. Thein two. trail
paper His
haphazard grooming revealed a handsome face and winsome smile.
7. Housing first
That’s Cat at his best, and maybe, for a brief moment, one imagined 8.Navy Petty adjustment
A tough Officer
Christopher Gill in uniform, on a submarine in the Atlantic Ocean in the 1970s.
Or was it the ’80s? He threw out both dates during a manic diatribe.
One thing is clear.
“I’ve been on and off on the streets since … after my severe pinched nerve,” he said.
Homeless advocates have been tracking him for
more than a year. Workers from People Assisting
the Homeless (PATH) check in with him and try to
steer him off the streets.
He’s not ready yet.
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There are thousands of Cats on the streets of
American cities — an estimated 57,849 homeless Known on the streets of Hollywood as
U.S. veterans on a single night in January 2013, “Cat,” homeless Navy veteran Christopher
Gill tries to shave with a broken razor he
the most recent government estimate. The pulled from his shopping cart of
numbers have been declining, down 24 percent belongings. Anthony Suau for Al Jazeera
America
since 2010.
As more troops have returned from Iraq (the last left in December 2011) and
Afghanistan, the Obama administration has set an ambitious goal: Get all homeless
veterans off the streets by 2015.
This mandate from above has opened up federal funding and transformed the
Veterans Affairs’ approach to the problem, leading to unprecedented cooperation
with private groups and the adoption of the “housing first” philosophy embraced by
many homeless advocates.
Rather than wait for the homeless to clean up — stop drinking and/or taking drugs,
get mental health counseling, find a job — the thinking is to put a roof over their
heads first and work on their issues afterward. This approach to homelessness
shatters the premise that only those who clean up and conform deserve housing.
“The light went on,” said Reggie Holmes, PATH regional manager who heads
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outreach efforts in Hollywood. “It’s cheaper to house them. The homeless cost them
(taxpayers) millions. They go to hospitals. They go to jail.”
2. City of veterans CHAPTERS
In December, Phoenix announced with much fanfare that it was the A fixture
1. first city toon Sunset
meet
the White House goal. Salt Lake City quickly followed. Boulevard
2. City of veterans
But in a city like Los Angeles, which has 30 times the number of homeless veterans
3. The team’s all here
than Phoenix had, the challenges are daunting.
4. The winning ticket
Nowhere is the get-them-off-the-streets-first approach more intense than here, where
5. The long road home
the mild weather creates a more welcoming environment for the homeless.
6. The paper trail
The city has the highest number of homeless veterans in the U.S. — almost 6,000 on
7. Housing first
any given night (Phoenix had 200). More than a third have been homeless for at least a
year, and more than two-thirds served in the U.S. armed forces after Vietnam.
8. A Fewer
tough adjustment
than 20 percent have seen combat.
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Average age: 51. Fifty-two percent are black, 31 percent white, 13 percent Hispanic
and 4 percent Asian, Native American and other. By far, the vast majority are men (94
percent).
Often, homeless veterans have mental health, medical or social issues. Forty-five
percent have a substance abuse problem, and half have a serious psychiatric disorder,
such as psychosis or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Twenty-seven percent
have both.
The VA has partnered with counties and nonprofit groups to set up Veteran Courts to
help divert veteran inmates from incarceration and into homeless and mental health
treatment.
“We’re providing many, many exits out of homelessness,” said Michelle Wildy, chief of
community care for the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System. “The way we’ve
been able to do it is by meeting veterans where they’re at. We engage them on the
streets.”
Staffing in her division grew from 35 in 2009 to 400 today.
Los Angeles has been ground zero for many VA pilot programs targeting homeless
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veterans. “If it can be done in L.A., it can be done anywhere,” Wildy said.
3. The team’s all here CHAPTERS
Craig Joyce rounded up his ACT (assertive community treatment) 1. Ateam:
fixturea on Sunset
social
worker, a nurse practitioner and a peer support specialist (a veteranBoulevard
who has been
homeless and now helps others get off the streets). Sometimes2.a Citypsychologist or
of veterans
licensed nurse comes along.
3. The team’s all here
The team has a morning huddle every day and assigns team members to various
4. The winning ticket
clients. They may go alone or in pairs.
5. The long road home
“We meet five clients in one day,” said Joyce, program manager for the VA’spaper
6. The Enhanced
trail
Housing First program. “They have all the resources they need from one group of
7. Housing first
people.”
8. A tough adjustment
Referrals come from multiple sources — from groups such as PATH and Housing
Works (which addresses issues of AIDS and homelessness) to churches and business
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owners.
They reach out to clients on the streets and at shelters. They know where they sleep
or panhandle. If and when they get them off the streets, they visit them in their
apartments.
On a day late in January, the first stop was at Raymond McGinnis’ place in Van Nuys, a
San Fernando Valley suburb of Los Angeles. A severe alcoholic, the Navy veteran had
lived on the streets of Hollywood for 17 years. His life was sidetracked by a car
accident that required hip replacement, he said.
“That’s it. I lost my place,” he said, sitting in a messy apartment.
Janel Perez, the nurse practitioner on the team, monitored his blood pressure.
Slightly elevated, but the medication he was prescribed seemed to be working.
McGinnis plopped in a chair and talked reluctantly about his life: a sister in Utah, a
son who blames him for the breakup of his family and hasn’t spoken to him in five
years.
Friends? “Most of them are dead or in jail,” he said, his breath pungent from alcohol
in the middle of the morning.
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More than a year ago, McGinnis was living on the streets. The VA’s outreach got him
temporary shelter and, eventually, an apartment.
“I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I have a shower. I have a toilet. I have a TV, a radio.”
He’s talking about going back to work.
It may not happen, but McGinnis is not on the street more than a year after getting a
housing voucher.
1 of 7
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Navy veteran Raymond McGinnis in March 2012, when he had been homeless for more than 10 years. Anthony Suau
4. The winning ticket CHAPTERS
“Before, having a ticket off the street was having AIDS,” Holmes said.1. A fixture on Sunset
Boulevard
Now veterans hold the winning ticket called HUD-VASH, which2. City
stands for the
of veterans
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comDepartment of Housing and Urban Development's and Veterans Affairs' jointly run
3. The team’s all here
Supportive Housing program.
4. The winning ticket
“That’s where the money is, and there’s less focus on civilians,” he said.
5. The long road home
The program combines rental assistance for homeless veterans with case
6. The paper trail
management and clinical services by the VA.
7. Housing first
HUD has awarded funding for approximately 10,000 HUD-VASH vouchers almostadjustment
8. A tough every
year since 2008. Every state has at least one site that administers the program.
“I have never seen this before, this degree of focus and attention (to homeless
veterans),” said Megan Colvard, associate director of community engagement at
PATH, which has more than doubled its staff to 160 in the past year, largely to handle
the distribution of housing vouchers.
In 2011, HUD appropriated $50 million to serve about 7,000 families, and another $5.4
million was given to existing HUD-VASH sites. More than 58,000 vouchers have been
awarded since 2008.
Last year, when PATH in Los Angeles won the entire $1 million contract to distribute
1,100 vouchers locally – something that caused some grumbling among other
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comadvocacy groups – word got out and homeless vets began coming to the area. The
contract totals $6 million over five years for vouchers and case management, said
Carlos Gonzalez, director of programs.
“We target chronically homeless veterans with some level of mental illness or
substance abuse,” Gonzalez said. “We assign a case worker. We chase down the
documentation they need. We make appointments at the DMV, the VA, Housing
Authority, and we’re with them another year or two after they move in.”
About 1,000 have been doled out so far. This year, the contract is spread out to
several agencies.
Only the chronically homeless — those on the streets for a year or more or individuals
who have recurring episodes — are eligible. When the voucher is granted, recipients
have 90 days to use it before it expires. That means 90 days to get these homeless
veterans Social Security cards they may no longer have and discharge papers they’ve
long lost. Another obstacle: the high cost of housing in Los Angeles.
“There’s a growing gap between housing costs and income,” Colvard said. “The total
average incomes may be $500 to $700 a month and the average one-bedroom
apartment is $1,000. You can do the math.”
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1. A fixture
To get someone such as Cat Gill, the walking definition of chronically on Sunset
homeless, to
become a Raymond McGinnis, off the streets for more than a year, isBoulevard
a monumental
task. 2. City of veterans
3. The team’s all here
Placing them in temporary shelter is one thing. Once they’re there, the paperwork and
bureaucratic maze begins. 4. The winning ticket
5. The long road home
“The biggest problem is, if they don’t have honorable discharge, they’re not eligible
for health care,” said Savanah Walseth, outreach navigator for PATH in Hollywood.
6. The paper trail
“We try other ways of housing them or try to change their status with the VA.”
7. Housing first
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comBenjamin Samual Wahl, 28, a Philadelphia native,
8. A tough adjustment
served in the Navy in the Gulf. He left before his
two-year service time was up because of a
disagreement with a superior and was diagnosed
with mental disorders.
Wahl became agitated when he recounted how he
ended up on the streets. His parents kicked him
Benjamin Samual Wahl at the PATH center out.
in Hollywood. He and his wife, Brandi, have
applied for housing vouchers for veterans,
but in the meantime they sleep in the “My dad doesn’t talk to me,” he said. “I lost my
shelter. Anthony Suau for Al Jazeera America grandmother. I lost my mind.”
He moved in with his wife’s mother in New York, and later to a shared apartment. But
their roommates left without paying, and they were evicted. He and his wife, Brandi,
24, then lived in a U-haul and later headed west to get away from the cold. They slept
in sleeping bags three blocks from the beach for six months, headed to Hollywood
and camped behind the AT&T building at De Longpre and El Centro avenues.
An officer with the Hollywood Business Improvement District spotted them and
alerted Holmes, the PATH outreach worker. They had to be persuaded to move into a
temporary shelter.
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com“It has its pros and cons,” Wahl said. “Our biggest problem is the dog.”
That’s Zelda, a Chihuahua-Sheltie mix, now in a cage in a small kennel in PATH’s
garage, next to meowing cats and other homeless pets. Ben and Brandi visit her daily.
Shelter life means Brandi sleeps in a room upstairs with other women. Ben is in a
larger men’s dormitory.
“I don’t like living separated from my husband,” said Brandi, who talked openly of her
mental problems. “I got more sleep on the streets.”
They see each other during the day and continue to panhandle at Sunset and Vine.
Case workers are trying to overturn Ben’s military record and are setting up meetings
with a lawyer and homeless advocate. Brandi has a better chance of getting a housing
voucher through the Department of Mental Health than Ben through the VA.
“It’s a dead end everywhere,” Ben said. “Dad was a Navy guy. I thought I was going to
go in the military and I would never have to worry.”
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comBen Wahl with Zelda, a 2-year-old Chihuahua-Sheltie mix, who gets to stay with Ben and his wife in the
shelter. Anthony Suau for Al Jazeera America
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1. A fixture
When David Hauser, 55, walked into his interview with PATH workers, on Sunset
he wore a
Boulevard
brown sports jacket a bit too big for him and a green "Welcome to the Wildlife" cap.
He sat nervously and answered all questions the way a student who aimsoftoveterans
2. City please
his teacher would.
3. The team’s all here
Enlisted? Yes, in the Navy from 1976 to 1978. 4. The winning ticket
5. The long road home
Honorable discharge? Yes.
6. The paper trail
Documentation? Yes.
7. Housing first
Debt? None. 8. A tough adjustment
Health? Good.
Substance abuse? No street drugs.
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comHauser has been in temporary housing for three
years. The Navy veteran, who served on the USS
Constellation aircraft carrier, says he has three
associate degrees in engineering and water
treatment, and had jobs but was laid off, one
when he took a leave to be with his mother before
she died of cancer in 2010.
Assault charges filed by his father landed him in Homeless Navy veteran David Hauser
answering questions to see if he was
jail for a few months and later on the streets. He
eligible for a housing voucher. Anthony
found refuge at the nonprofit U.S. Vets in Suau for Al Jazeera America
Inglewood but was transferred to PATH when he
hit the maximum two-year stay. He carries a stack
of folders with job applications and resumes and searches for jobs online, using the
banks of computers that PATH provides.
Being homeless is “unnerving, confusing,” said Hauser, who is single and childless.
“There’s a sense of panic, uncertainty. As a responsible, conscientious member of the
family, to be thrown in the gutter … Not until my father passes away can I go home.
It’s a strange feeling to be estranged.”
He said he would prefer to find a job first and then an apartment that's close to it.
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com"Getting an apartment is a little bit like putting the cart before the horse if I don't have
employment," he said.
But not under the housing-first approach.
7. Housing first CHAPTERS
Ivan Bennett is a spry 85-year-old with a sharp mind and tongue, athletic1. A fixture
pantson Sunset
and a
headband. An Army veteran who served in Korea from 1946 to 1948, Boulevard
he has been
homeless for more than two decades. It’s not clear how he ended 2.upCity on the streets.
of veterans
He talked about attending Arizona State University for three years on the GI Bill and
3. The team’s all here
even the Sorbonne in Paris.
4. The winning ticket
“I never had the ability to have a steady job,” he said. “I tried to be a writer.”
5. The long road home
His manuscript is titled “War Against Control,” about the power6.ofThe
China, Bennett
paper trail
said.
7. Housing first
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comHe married in Bangkok and said he has a 45-year-old son he hasn’t 8.since the son
A tough was
adjustment
5.
Perez checked him out.
“Besides being a bit hard of hearing, he really doesn’t have any major medical issues,”
she said.
The VA’s ACT team spotted him in Beverly Gardens Park, across from the swanky
Beverly Hills City Hall, and worked several months to get him off the streets.
On a Thursday in January, Bennett’s life changed. He stood in a one-bedroom
apartment with wall-to-wall carpeting. It was empty, but furniture would arrive soon.
A few days later, the apartment was still empty, but Bennett had a few things in the
refrigerator: eggs, bacon, butter, mustard, lettuce. A bottle of tequila was on the
kitchen counter.
Case workers arranged to pick him up later that week to take him to the bank and pay
$205 to the Department of Water and Power.
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com“A $205 deposit for that?’’ he asked, baffled.
When the furniture arrived, he was overwhelmed. When someone plugged in a lamp
and the light came on, he clapped.
1 of 9
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comKorean War veteran Ivan Bennett, 85, sits in front of his new apartment building in January, waiting for donated furniture to
arrive. After two decades on the street, Bennett has qualified for a voucher from the VA, which has begun an aggressive
campaign to help homeless veterans get homes. Anthony Suau for Al Jazeera America
8. A tough adjustment CHAPTERS
For veterans who have been without a home for years, the prospect1. of A living
fixturealone
on Sunset
in
an apartment is terrifying. They miss their friends on the street. Their Boulevard
world is turned
upside down. They feel lonely. Many just sit in front of the TV. 2. City of veterans
3. The team’s all here
“One of the most horrible parts is the isolation,” said Spencer Downing, director of
programs and operations at the Center at Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood, where
4. The winning ticket
the homeless come for coffee, mill about, show off their artwork, listen to music or
5. The long road home
just talk.
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comThe paper trail
6.
Michael Brady, 72, an Air Force veteran who was stationed in Morocco from 1960 to
7. Housing first
1964, spent 23 years in motels and on the street, but Joyce’s team at the VA managed
to get him into an apartment in Santa Monica more than a year ago. 8. A tough adjustment
“He was living on the floor,” Perez said. “He didn’t have a stick of furniture. It took us
several months of working with him for him to accept the furniture.”
Brady sits on the sofa now, but the mattress on
the bed has never been used. He prefers to sleep
on the floor.
Brady has coronary artery disease and just
completed treatment for prostate cancer, but he
went to radiation every day on his own and takes
his medication religiously, Perez said.
Formerly homeless veteran Michael Brady
How’s life off the streets? in his apartment. Anthony Suau for Al Jazeera
America
“It’s OK,” he said, on the couch with a blanket
over his lap and his walker nearby. “I think the streets have wonderful things for
people. Adversity? Why be afraid? I have faced adversity. I’ve had a couple of
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.combreakdowns and I discovered myself … What the streets taught me is self-reliance.”
It’s this kind of language that crystallizes the challenges that lie ahead.
“Now we‘ve got all these vets housed, but they’re not used to budgeting, paying the
rent,” said Matt Rayburn, a regional manager at the main Los Angeles PATH center,
who listens in on Hauser’s interview.
“The challenge is, how do we identify that this guy is going to have problems paying
his rent before his landlord calls? How do we get them to make social connections?”
Caseworkers ask landlords to alert them before starting the eviction process and then
try to intervene before the veterans are forced to return to a life on the streets.
“We have a moral obligation to help these people,” Rayburn said.
There is no question the Obama administration’s effort to house homeless veterans is
groundbreaking, Holmes said.
“But just as much effort has to be put in to keep them housed,” he said. “We found
out the hard way that it takes an average year and a half to get them in a house and
three months to get evicted. And once evicted, it takes five years to get them back.
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Tom Canavan 2 days ago
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comThey need jobs and structure. What's more lonely than sitting in an apartment with nothing to do other than
listening to thoughts of failure? It would be great if we had a companion program to train and employ them.
Something like Thejobsmandate.org
A job, training and a free house might be better than staring at 4 walls.
REPLY 0
Caleb Wells 3 days ago
As a combat veteran who benefits from a BUD/VASH voucher I just would like to say how thankful I am for
this program.
REPLY 0
Alia Breitwieser 5 days ago
This is a very well-balanced and humanizing look at the government's proposed goal and the VAs who
might or might not be helped by it. As someone who spends a lot of time visiting family in West Hollywood, I
also appreciate the closer look this gives me at some of my family's 'neighbors.'
REPLY 0
Mitch Johnson 5 days ago
We're all human, care for all the needy not just a select group. All people, rich or poor, deserve real true
reform of our sick civilization.
Publicly fund all political campaigns at all levels, stop letting entrenched political parties game the election
open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.comprocess, then try to fix the systemic problems of society.
REPLY 0
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