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Money on the way for LA's homeless vets?
Veteran J.J. Asevedo raises a clenched fist at a news conference to announce a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging the misuse a 390-acre plot of land in West Los Angeles that was donated some 130 years ago to house veterans who need care after traumatic military experiences, at the Los Angeles Veterans Administration center in Los Angeles Wednesday, June 8, 2011.
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AP Photo/Reed Saxon
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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein says federal money may be on the way to help homeless veterans in Southern California.
The Senate Veterans Affairs committee has approved legislation that would provide $35 million to address a severe shortage of housing for homeless veterans in Los Angeles.
She says the money, if approved by the full Senate, would allow the Veterans Administration to renovate a building at the West L.A. Veterans Administration medical center.
But the building would house fewer than a hundred men and women. More than 8,000 homeless vets live in L.A, and about a third of them are chronically homeless. The American Civil Liberties Union and veterans groups have sued to force the Veterans Administration to provide more housing at its West L.A. campus.
The agency has released a plan to do that, but has no funding source and no timeline for when it will happen. Veterans Affairs Secretary General Eric Shinseki has pledged to end veteran homelessness across the country within five years.
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