First in a series
Los Angeles has the largest homeless Veteran population in the nation. Ironically, Los Angeles also has the largest Veterans Home in the Nation, albeit an abandoned one.
Veterans Park Conservancy, which is not a Veterans’ organization but a wealthy homeowner group in Brentwood, obtained an unprecedented long-term “sharing agreement” with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to build a public park “for the enjoyment of the entire community” on a billion-dollar parcel of Veterans property … “rent free.”
Meanwhile, more than 20,000 disabled, disadvantaged military Veterans have been exiled from these sacred grounds deeded 125 years ago in their sole behalf. They are forced to live homeless and hungry in back-alley squalor.
Los Angeles City Attorney candidate Michael Feuer, a lawyer by profession and a career politician, is a long-time supporter of the Veterans Park Conservancy. Subsequently, he endorses the homeowner group’s behind-the-scenes land deal with the VA to build a public park instead of constructing housing for homeless Veterans.
In next Tuesday’s runoff election, Mr. Feuer is running against incumbent Carmen Trutanich.
Where Do We Get Our Freedoms?
It’s been said over and over that America “is a free country.” Yet nothing is free because somebody has to pay for it.
We enjoy freedom to vote for the candidate of our choice, not because of political parties, campaigns and polling stations, but because of the selfless men and women in our armed forces who pledge their lives to defend our U.S. Constitution and flag.
We enjoy freedom of the press, not because of news media owners, reporters and advertisers, but because of the selfless men and women in our armed forces who pledge their lives to defend our U.S. Constitution and flag.
We enjoy freedom of speech, not because we believe we’re entitled to speak our mind, but because of these selfless men and women.
We enjoy freedom of religion, not because we choose to worship or not at our own discretion, but because of the selfless men and women.
Everything we enjoy in our free society is not because of high-paid politicians, but because of a huge price that has been paid by brave members of our U.S. military who defend America’s unparalleled way of life.
In return, we as a grateful society are supposed to take care of those who have taken care of us, particularly when they are disabled and become homeless because of their physical and mental war injuries.
The National Veterans Home
After the Civil War, the disabled, debilitated, incapacitated and disadvantaged soldiers who returned from combat needed long-term specialized care, far more than their families were able to provide.
Compounding their mental and physical war injuries were demoralizing emptiness and loneliness.
Men who had lived together, fought together and survived together had forged a camaraderie that could not be broken. As a result, their future stability and well-being would require co-existent housing and quality care established in a safe and restful environment.
Thus, in 1888, and in accordance with an 1887 Act of Congress, two patriotic families donated 600 acres of pristine property in West Los Angeles for the sole purpose “to locate, establish, construct and permanently maintain a branch of said National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.”
This was the first National Home west of the Rockies. The gift was established not as a hospital or an alms house, but a “Home” with supplemental provisions provided by the Government of the United States, i.e., “We the People.”
Furthermore, this noble endowment was not a charity, but a reward to the brave and deserving. More specifically, the land was deeded as a “home” to ensure that there would never be a homeless Veteran in Los Angeles.
The irrefutable clause “to locate, establish, construct and permanently maintain a branch of said National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers” is repeated five times in the Deed of 1888.
(To be continued)
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at rrosebrock1@aol.com