Despite ongoing efforts to house homeless veterans in Los Angeles, current estimates suggest over 3,000 local veterans are still homeless. (Photo: Airman Magazine)
In June, nonprofit organization Tunnel to Towers made a significant contribution to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs project to house homeless veterans as part of its ongoing plans to renovate its West Los Angeles Campus.
Currently, construction efforts, which are expected to continue throughout the next decade, are co-managed by the VA, Century Housing, developer Thomas Safran and Associates, as well as veterans service organization U.S. VETS. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. VETS chief executive Steve Peck, said Tunnel to Towers’ undisclosed grant will accelerate the building of housing units “by hopefully a year or so.”
On why Tunnel to Towers decided to help fund this project, the nonprofit’s senior advisor Bradley Blakeman said, “[veterans] had a great motto and creed when they were in the military and that was ‘leave no one behind,’ but when they come back home to America and they separate from the military, it’s like every man and woman for themselves. That’s unacceptable.”
In the same interview, Blakeman noted that the nonprofit expects to be able to house 500 homeless veterans by the end of this year. However, it is unclear if Blakeman was referencing the grant given to the West Los Angeles project or another project elsewhere in the United States.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.
