Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans:
The VA's big real estate fraud scam just got bigger and democracy just got smaller – as you will see by the following story that appeared in the Daily News last Friday:
Homeless veterans one step closer to housing on VA campus in North Hills
By Melissa Pamer, Staff Writer
Developers broke ground Friday on a long-planned and controversial project to house formerly homeless veterans on the Sepulveda VA campus in North Hills.
The 147-unit project – which has caused an uproar since the public got wind of it in 2004 – will replace two vacant buildings on the vast campus of the Sepulveda Veterans Affairs Ambulatory Care Center.
The development was celebrated Friday at an event attended by some 200 representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the nonprofit partners collaborating on the project, funders and formerly homeless veterans.
“Eighteen months from now, veterans are going to be housed here, and we are very excited about this moment,” said Gregory Scott, president of New Directions Inc., a nonprofit that provides substance abuse treatment and support to veterans.
New Directions worked with housing builder A Community of Friends and the VA to get funding for the $48 million facility, which will house 147 veterans when completed. Counseling and case management will be provided on site by New Directions. Outpatient medical services are already located close by on the VA campus.
Residents must have completed a treatment program and have been sober for at least six months before becoming eligible to move in.
“This is not going to be for homeless vets right off the street,” said Donna Beiter, director of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare Systems, in an interview. The project, supporters said, is in line with a federal goal of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015.
“This is historic. We understand social change takes time. It's not an easy process,” Scott added at the ceremony.
The many community critics of the project – including some local elected officials, neighborhood councils and veterans groups ¬ say the development has been shrouded in secrecy and is the first step toward privatizing the entire VA campus. They say non-veterans will be able to live at the new facilities, though project representatives insist that's not the case. “They just don't believe it,” said Dora Gallo, head of A Community of Friends. “A hundred percent veterans. We agree this land should be for veterans.”
Peggy Burgess, a North Hills community activist who helped lead the charge against the project, remains staunchly opposed. This week, she said the groundbreaking marked “the final betrayal to veterans.”
“This is a very dangerous, dangerous project,” Burgess said. “It will open up the entire 160 acres at Sepulveda to further low-income, private-sector housing development. And that will destroy this community. The impact on this community will be incredible.”
Representatives of the project noted intense community resistance, but they said they had addressed concerns. They worked with federal and state officials to ensure the project could be restricted to veterans – and they amended their 75-year lease with the VA to say so.
Beiter said some veterans have been worried that health services on the campus are going to go away because of the project. That won't happen, she said.
“Some of our veterans, they don't quite understand what we're going to do here,” Beiter said. “I think once it's here, it'll be fine.”
There was an overwhelming opposition to this project by Veterans, by Veterans’ service organizations and every surrounding community.
This 75-year lease at $1-a-year is a real estate scam of biblical proportion. It will not remove one homeless Veteran from the dangerous streets of Los Angeles.
Veterans already have a “Home” at the National Veterans Home. But the land is being stolen away for a public park and turned into a tourist attraction.
This real estate fraud scam is just getting bigger at the expense of homeless Veterans and the benefit of so-called non-profit corporations.
In a few days, there will be a major article on the VA's rampant and out-of-control corruption and malfeasance.
You can either sit on the sideline and watch your country being ripped apart by a corrupt government machine … or you can take action.
Join the Veterans Revolution and attend the 204th consecutive Sunday Rally this coming Sunday to “Save Our Veterans Land” and to “Bring Our Homeless Veterans HOME.”
Every Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. at the northeast corner of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards, west of the 405 Freeway, adjacent to Brentwood
God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution www.VeteransRevolution.com
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at rrosebrock1@aol.com