The Brief

At the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus, Army veteran Josh Petit gestures toward a cluster of about 50 “tiny homes” that sit on an unpaved chunk of land on the 387-acre expanse.

They’re cramped but, says Petit, “I think it’s a blessing compared to what was here before, which was nothing.”

Petit, a 6-foot-2 vet who served in Iraq, struggled with substance abuse for many years and has been in and out of homelessness for nearly two decades. He’s now sober and recently moved into one of these small 8-by-8 foot dwellings on campus.

Petit says the showers are ice cold and the toilet and sink are so close he can hardly sit down. But after living in a tent encampment in front of the VA — known as Veterans Row on San Vicente Boulevard — he says this is a welcome step up.

“I was infantry in the Army. I’m used to being in the mud, in the muck,” he explains. “Gimme a place with electricity and an AC, I'll sit in there and be happy with it.”

The 'homeless veterans capital of the country' 

Nearly 4,000 U.S. veterans live without permanent housing in L.A. County, according to a 2022 report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Once deemed the “homeless veterans capital of the country,” L.A. has had more unhoused veterans than any city in America.

Red tape and an overly complex administrative process paired with years of illegal mismanagement of the West Los Angeles VA land have left those who have served our country forced to wage a new battle to secure housing and benefits when they finally return home.

Like so many other veterans, Petit, 42, has lived through years of instability, fighting for promised benefits through the VA since his return from war. “I've met many veterans out here that had devastating things happen to them,” Petit says.

Josh Petit is an army veteran who's experienced homelessness for years. He is awaiting a spot in newly constructed apartments on the West LA VA campus

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Michael Flores

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LAist

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The tiny homes where Petit now lives were constructed in 2021 as a quick fix for moving people out of Veterans Row. They were always meant to be temporary, but most veterans in the dwellings have no idea when — or if — they will qualify for permanent housing. And even if they did, they would have to trudge through seemingly endless paperwork, office visits and an application process that could last years. For some, it never ends.

“You have instances where people are sitting for a year in a tiny home when they should already be in housing,” said Rob Reynolds, an advocate for unhoused veterans.

Reynolds, who served in Iraq and was unhoused himself for some time after he was discharged, says he’s most concerned about veterans who are severely disabled or suffering from mental health issues and can’t advocate for themselves.

“This work has been absolutely taxing and frustrating,” he says about his daily mission to get services for veterans. “It takes so much to get very small things accomplished.”

Apartments behind schedule … and unfilled 

In May, the VA opened up 233 units in three newly renovated buildings to house veterans on the massive West L.A. campus, operated by the Veterans Health Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The new apartments are a response to a 2011 lawsuit alleging the VA was illegally renting the land to private interests and not delivering on its mandate to house veterans.

But the VA is running about four years behind schedule and hundreds of units short on that promise. (By 2022, the VA was supposed to have built 770 units). And still many of the new apartments that are available remain empty because of all the bureaucracy laid out above.

“There’re many roadblocks for a lot of us,” Petit says. “If the VA had been doing what they should have been doing, none of this would have happened.”

U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough and other officials celebrate the grand opening of 120 new apartments for unhoused veterans at the VA's West LA campus on May 2, 2023. Two months later, most of the apartments were still empty.

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Nick Gerda

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West L.A. campus

For years, the West L.A. campus — gifted to the VA in the 1800s to house former soldiers — has been riddled with controversy. There was the 2011 lawsuit after which a judge ruled the VA misused the campus by leasing land for hotel laundry, a film studio storage lot and UCLA’s baseball stadium. In 2018, a VA employee pleaded guilty to taking bribes from a private parking lot company that was leasing land at the campus. In 2021, a VA office Inspector General report found that many of the leases on campus were in violation of the VA’s legal obligation to house and support veterans.

“The VA catered to those entities over veterans' needs,” says Rob Reynolds.

And last November, 14 veterans filed another suit demanding the VA speed up the renovation of the abandoned buildings that have long dotted the massive landscape and stick to its promised timeline for the new units.

“The phrase ‘homeless veteran’ should be an American oxymoron,” the lawsuit states. “But this is the cruel truth — the federal government consistently refuses to keep its word and take meaningful actions to bring the abomination of veteran homelessness to an end. The VA remains a principal cause of continuing homelessness among veterans.”

In response to questions about the delays, the VA has cited environmental impact studies, the need for infrastructure upgrades and lack of funding to complete the construction.

“Would we have liked to build these units sooner?” says John Kuhn, Deputy Medical Center Director of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. “Of course, everyone is interested in getting as much housing developed as fast as possible.”

The roadblocks 

Beyond building delays, getting approved to live in these units can be a challenge. Missing or incorrect details in any of the paperwork can disqualify veterans, requiring them to restart the process all over again.

Veterans who are “severely mentally ill, severely disabled … will show up here, have no identification, no paperwork, and then they have to go through this whole process again that can take three to six months,” Reynolds says.

Perhaps the most frustrating roadblock is the issue of income limit restrictions. Many veterans struggling with mental or physical health issues receive disability compensation that exceeds the Area Median Income for affordable housing, disqualifying them from many units reserved for veterans.

“So the cruel irony here is that the most disabled veterans — the ones that would benefit the most from living at the VA — are being told they can't live at the VA,” Reynolds says.

Veterans and their advocates say a lack of direct communication between local officials, like L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, and veterans themselves has delayed the process further.

But Bass says she is committed to getting vets housed.

“I have been very much involved in these issues along with other categories of homeless people as well,” Bass told LAist. “In terms of speeding up the building, I've been very dismayed by that. If we can get the flexibility in some of the rules, we will be able to house a lot more.”

Bass also said she is currently working at the federal level to push the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to shift these policies regarding income caps and consider veterans’ specific needs.

Still, veterans say they don’t feel heard.

“Just talk to us,” Josh Petit said. “I mean, we’re veterans, if we don’t bond with you, we’re not gonna work with you.”

Edward’s story 

“I fought in Afghanistan, I’m 70% disabled,” says Edward Sotelo, a formerly unhoused veteran now living on the West L.A. VA campus. “Why should I have to fight for my service connection back here?”

Sotelo, 36, recalls waiting three months for a first appointment with the VA a number of times. With no luck getting benefits, he alternated between crashing on friends’ couches and living on the streets after he was discharged from Afghanistan more than a decade ago.

Edward Sotelo is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. He just got a new apartment on the West LA VA campus after being on and off unhoused for almost a decade.

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Michael Flores

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Eventually, he got into a VA rehabilitation program that helped him stay sober long enough to get the housing application filed correctly. But injuries Sotelo sustained in Afghanistan rendered him 70% disabled — he now says he struggles with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury — and his disability payments put him above most of the income caps on the new units at the West L.A. VA.

“I had lost hope at that time period,” he says. “I honestly thought what I was going through was a life sentence.”

But in May, after an excruciating, decade-long journey — the paperwork, bouncing between agencies, waiting years to get into rehab and therapy to stay sober — Sotelo finally found an apartment on campus he qualified for, only after the income limit was lifted. He now has keys to his own place.

Along with high-quality amenities in the apartment, which are “beautiful and modern,” Sotelo says, he’s also taking college courses at Santa Monica College and is enrolled in therapy through VA benefits.

“There are miracles that can happen within this space,” he says, his eyes lighting up. “But I had to go find it all myself. What about the guys out there that can't do that? Who are not able to protect themselves?”

‘Any day now, I’m hoping’ 

As for Iraq vet Josh Petit, he’s still waiting for his turn to move into one of the new permanent units on campus. He’s been living in his tiny home for more than a year and a half.

“My mental health has been greatly improved, from where I was out on San Vicente sticking a needle in my arm,” he says. “It’s not what we deserve, but it’s a step up from the tents.”

He says having his own shower, even a tiny one hovering over the sink, helps him to maintain his hygiene. This allows him to regularly see his family, including his 17-year-old daughter. “I just don’t want to lose my family,” he says, tearfully.

Whether or not he will soon be transferred into one of the newly constructed units as promised remains unknown.

“They said I’m in one of the new buildings,” he tells us. “So any day now, I’m hoping.”

Californians will decide on more than a dozen ballot initiatives this November, covering a wide range of proposals focused on housing, taxes, recall elections, voter identification and more.

One ballot measure would approve an $11.25 billion bond for affordable housing; another would create a new down payment assistance program for homebuyers. Proposition 40 would establish a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires in California, while two other propositions would limit new taxes and potentially nullify Prop. 40. Other ballot measures, if approved, would change the recall election process in California, require identification to vote and speed up the environmental review process for certain developments.

It’s a lot of information to wade through on your own.

That’s why LAist unveils its Voter Game Plan each election season, with guides to help you cast a ballot that aligns with your values and beliefs. (The one thing we don’t do? Tell you how to vote. That is up to you.) For the Nov. 3 general election, LAist is also hosting a series of ballot cram sessions focused on helping you make informed decisions.

The series kicked off on Wednesday with AirTalk Host Larry Mantle and a panel of experts focused on the long list of statewide propositions in a one-hour cram session.

Michael Alvarez, professor of political and computational social science at CalTech; Sara Sadhwani, associate professor of politics at Pomona College, and Lee E. Ohanian, a professor of economics at UCLA and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, provided an overview of each ballot measure. The trio described the pros, cons and stakes of every decision Californians face this November, including the confusing and conflicting trio of tax measures you’ll see on your ballot as Props. 40, 41 and 42.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to how much revenue this might generate. There’s a lot of uncertainty, in particular, if it’s going to generate revenue in sufficient time to help the Californians who are really in need of having healthcare,” said Alvarez on Prop. 40, which would create a one-time tax on billionaires to fund healthcare.

Lee and Sadhwani both noted that there's a question of whether the tax would drive billionaires out of the state. “If you think that super high wealthy people should be paying more in taxes, there’s better ways to do this,” said Lee.

As for Prop. 41, which would require audits of new tax programs, and Prop. 42, which would ban new taxes on personal property, the panel agreed the measures are confusing.

Both propositions would nullify Prop. 40 if they receive more votes in support than the billionaire tax measure. That’s the big thing to remember, said Sadhwani: “They’re really the poison pills of Prop. 40, the billionaire’s tax. So a yes on 41 or a yes on 42 is a no essentially for Prop. 40.”

“I’ll be honest, Prop. 41 as well as Prop. 42 kind of makes my eyes glaze over,” said Sadhwani. Alvarez added that the measures make his head spin. Experts — they’re just like us!

LAist’s upcoming voter cram sessions will focus on judicial elections and Orange County.

You can find LAist’s Voter Game Plan and dozens of guides to the Nov. 3 election here at LAist.com/Vote

Elevated sea levels are already rolling into Southern California waters, leading to coastal erosion and other damage. An El Niño-driven Kelvin wave is further exacerbating conditions along the coast. And Tropical Storm Rachel could bring rain across the region this weekend.

But all of this is probably just the beginning of a very wet Southern California rainy season.

Authorities have been sounding the alarm.

“ Residents need to hear this information, and they need to hear it repeatedly, enough times so that they too can act,” L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said during a recent presentation about El Niño preparations.

Heavy rain, flooding and debris flows can pose serious threats to homes and infrastructure. Officials and climate scientists say the best way to protect yourself and your property is to make preparations now, well before peak El Niño conditions arrive.

Here’s what you can do to prepare your home.

Preparing your property

One of the first steps to getting your home ready for El Niño is to understand how vulnerable it is to flooding when heavy rain or surging surf hits your neighborhood.

“It really is incumbent upon people to pause, evaluate where they live, where they travel and to really think about what would happen if those areas were flooded out,” said Kerjon Lee, spokesperson for the L.A. County Department of Public Works. “ Knowing your community, your neighborhood, where mud and debris flow might occur — is really critical.”

You can review your risks using California’s MyHazard tool, which allows you to input your address and cycle through potential risks.

Floodwaters and the landscape

Knowing if your property or neighborhood has flooded in the past can be helpful, and you can learn a lot from simply looking at the landscape in and around your home.

If your house is at the bottom of a hillside, for example, it’s probably more susceptible to debris flows, especially if the slope burned in a wildfire in the last several years. Burn scars are especially vulnerable to landslides and flooding because they lack the established vegetation that helps hold soil in place and absorbs water during heavy rain.

Other landmarks to look out for near your property are creeks, canals, drainage channels, debris basins and even low-lying roadways.

It’s also a good idea to understand how rainwater flows onto your property, where it collects and how it leaves. The goal should be for water to flow through your property safely and efficiently, without causing damage to neighbors.

That means clearing debris and overgrowth from gutters and drains now, before extreme weather hits.

Officials are also urging residents to report clogged or blocked storm drains to their local public works department.

If you live in L.A. County and are concerned about potential mud or debris flows, you can contact the county’s Department of Public Works for free advice.

Sandbags

If your property is at high risk of flooding, consider stockpiling sandbags. Many fire departments and public works departments offer sandbags to their local communities.

You can check sandbag distribution locations and availability here:

• L.A. County
• Orange County 
• Ventura County
• Santa Barbara County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County

Be prepared to fill the sandbags yourself, as most places only offer empty ones. Never fill sandbags with beach sand or empty used ones onto the beach.

Once you have sandbags, make sure you know how to use them properly.

Here are a few tips:

• Only fill sandbags half-full, not all the way full.
• Do not place sandbags directly against the outer wall of a building as wet bags can create added pressure on the foundation. 
• Sandbags should be placed parallel to the direction of water flow.
• The open ends of sandbags should be folded underneath and face upstream so they aren’t forced open as water flows around them.
• Sandbags should be used to redirect floodwater rather than create a dam or block its path. 
• Sandbags can be used to protect doorways, but to do so, they should have a waterproof layer like heavy plastic or waterproof canvas placed behind them. 

This diagram shows the proper way to place sandbags so that they are parallel to the flow of water or debris and redirect it away from structures.

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Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

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Local agencies offer thorough instructions on how to use sandbags online. L.A. County Public Works offers a breakdown in its Homeowners Guide.

Sandbags and other materials for protecting your home, including plywood, lumber or plastic sheeting, should be stored in a dry location away from potential flooding.

Other flood considerations

If valuables could be damaged or destroyed by floodwaters, consider moving them away from the ground or, if possible, to upper floors. Keep important documents in waterproof containers or sealed bags, and make sure to create digital copies.

Another recommendation is to check trees on your property for dead branches, cracks or other issues that might make them unstable, especially those that hang over structures. If you’re unsure or concerned about your trees, you can hire an arborist to inspect them. To trim or remove them, you will likely have to hire a professional. Cities and counties generally do not handle tree maintenance on private property.

Finally, consider purchasing flood insurance if your home is at risk — and do so as early as possible.

Standard homeowners insurance policies typically do not cover flood damage, and new flood insurance plans can take at least 30 days to kick in. If you want to consider signing up for a plan, the National Flood Insurance Program is a good place to start.

If floodwaters do enter your home, public health officials recommend drying wet areas as quickly as possible, as saturation can lead to mold. If mold does take hold, clean the area using a disinfectant. Also, wear gloves and a mask to protect your skin and lungs and throw away moldy items that can’t be cleaned.

Jordan Corral had to do something.

It was late 2024, during a historically dry start to the winter. But the winter before that had been historically wet. This kind of “weather whiplash” is growing more common with a warming climate, research is finding. And it meant the hillsides of the Santa Monica Mountains were overgrown with invasive and highly flammable plants, such as black mustard, castor bean and fennel.

So Corral got to work. Alongside mentor Bill Neill, the president of the Santa Monica Mountains chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Corral pulled together a group of volunteers to pull out invasive plants.

Then came the Palisades Fire. Corral and his wife, Sara Marti, lost their apartment and had to start over. They’ve finally relocated to an apartment that survived the fire. Meanwhile, through their work for the nonprofit Resilient Palisades, Corral has launched a subgroup focused on invasive plant removal.

“The team is working on wildfire recovery while trying to mitigate the next wildfire simultaneously,” Marti said by phone on a day when Corral was out working with volunteers in Temescal Canyon Gateway Park.

Now, Marti said, their effort to heal the land has become a part of their own recovery journey.

“Being a part of the recovery has played an enormous part of personal healing,” she said. “It's meditative while you know that you're also making a huge difference, protecting the nearby neighborhoods.”

A half dozen or so volunteers, including Corral and Marti, have been regularly going to the park to remove invasive species, which choke out native plants and grow into dense, dry vegetation that can make fires more intense. They’ve also worked with local high schools and youth groups.

Now, they’re racing to get as many invasive species removed as possible, while at the same time planting as many native seeds as they can, ahead of a potentially very wet winter driven by El Niño. If the rain is as intense as forecasters are predicting, it could help invasive species flourish further.

Sara G. Marti, left, and Jordan Corral lost their apartment in the Palisades Fire and are leaders in the nonprofit group Resilient Palisades.

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Courtesy Sara G. Marti

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The effort has been boosted by a recent $24,000 grant from UCLA’s Philanthropy as Civic Engagement Course. The money will help hire expert field assistants and buy safety gear, among other things. Corral and Marti hope the effort can become sustained.

“It's not a one-and-done thing,” Marti said. “Invasive plants are going to continue coming back. … So we're really just trying to stay ahead of it as much as we can.”

In some ways, Marti said, the effort reflects their own journey to recover after losing their apartment in the fire.

“ We're probably never going to win, but we can't give up,” she said. “We have to keep trying.”

The city of Los Angeles will establish a fund to clean the 6th Street Bridge, where trash and other waste often pile up on pedestrian walkways. 

In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the City Council approved the establishment of the fund, which will allow the city to accept and retain donations from private entities “to preserve this iconic landmark,” Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said. “Our commitment to this bridge has to ensure its longevity.”

Funds will go toward trash and bulky item pickup, graffiti abatement and other beautification services for the bridge. 

The dedicated fund follows the city’s hiring of Pasadena-based engineering firm Tetra Tech to restore the lighting of the bridge, which has been plagued by copper wire theft since its opening in 2022. 

The outages have frustrated residents and commuters who use the bridge to walk, run, bike and drive between downtown L.A. and the Eastside. 

This move also comes as residents in Boyle Heights and the Arts District grapple with how the 12-acre park beneath the bridge will be maintained once it opens in 2027. 

Community members have raised concerns about the possibility of homeless encampments forming at the park, as well as graffiti and whether copper wire theft from the bridge could affect the park’s safety.

Meanwhile, groups like the Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council, Arts District Los Angeles and the Boyle Heights 5K Run/Walk are filling gaps with an upcoming bridge cleanup in collaboration with Jurado’s office. 

The post City of LA will establish a fund to clean the 6th Street Bridge appeared first on LA Local.