“We the People” will hold a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 12 noon to 4, at downtown Skid Row, 808 E. 6th St.
The Town Hall will include a Search and Rescue crusade to find homeless Veterans in the area and bus them to the Los Angeles VA for humanitarian housing and care.
Nearly a month ago, we asked the HOK architecture firm to hold a Town Hall meeting at Skid Row as they have done at all the neighboring communities in West Los Angeles.
They did not respond.
Instead, HOK referred us to Charles Green, the Chief of VA Public Affairs, who did not respond or accept responsibility.
Bobby Shriver, the close personal friend of VA Secretary Robert McDonald, was asked to help. He did not respond or accept responsibility.
Thus, “We the People” have accepted this shrugged-off responsibility.
We are taking control to do the right and honorable thing on behalf of our disabled and homeless Veterans, starting at Skid Row.
This Town Hall meeting and Search and Rescue crusade are a consortium of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, Vietnam Veterans of America-Region 9, Justiceville USA, and the Old Veterans Guard.
More supportive allies will be announced soon.
We welcome all Veterans service organizations, Veteran advocates and local organizations of goodwill to join.
Every fellow American who appreciates our nation’s unique way of life and is grateful to the men and women of our armed forces who have made it possible, are respectfully requested to participate and join in this noble cause.
This bold venture will change the math of Veteran homelessness at Skid Row.
We are going into the most densely populated area of Veteran homelessness in the nation.
We are going to bus every one of them to the Los Angeles VA until there are zero homeless Veterans there, unless he or she voluntarily chooses to continue living in the worst hellhole on American soil.
Last Jan. 3, humanitarian Rafer Johnson, America’s legendary Olympic decathlon champion and civil/human rights icon, spoke passionately before the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition..
He declared that Los Angeles is in a state of emergency for homeless Veterans and that we needed to use the nearly 400 acres of land at the Los Angeles VA to house and care for them.
Jay Handal, chairman of the West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, authored a motion that passed unanimously by the 96-member neighborhood coalition supporting Mr. Johnson’s declaration.
On Feb. 19, Dick Southern, Region 9 Director of Vietnam Veterans of America, sent a letter to the VA requesting an emergency land use permit to house and care for our homeless Veterans on the VA grounds.
All of these honorable requests have been denied, rejected by those entrusted to end Veterans homelessness, particularly VA Secretary McDonald’s homeless expert, Vince Kane. Mr. Kane adamantly denies that Los Angeles is in a state of emergency.
Considering the VA’s failure to do its job as promised, one thing everyone knows is that we are definitely in a state of responsibility.
Thus, We the People accept this responsibility to do what VA Secretary McDonald and Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti failed to do in their public promise to end Veteran homelessness by the end of this year.
Now they say it will be next summer at the earliest.
Homeless Veterans cannot wait any longer, nor can We the People.
A special thanks to Terrence Gomes, president of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition, and Patti Berman, president of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, for stepping up and organizing the Skid Row Town Hall meeting.
Become part of this history-making cause to truly end Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles, our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans.
As Director of the Old Veterans Guard, you may contact me at 310.490.6495 or RRosebrock1@aol.com.