Abandoned Motels Transformed Into Apartments For Homeless Veterans

Matchmakers don’t always strike gold, but when they do, it’s magical. It makes sense. And you have to wonder why that pairing wasn’t made a long time ago. Wine and cheese, chocolate and peanut butter, Leonardo Di Caprio and Martin Scorsese, they’re all just amazing together. But why did it take so long to think of re-furbishing old, run-down properties into housing for homeless veterans? It’s genius. It gets rid of blights on the landscape that attract crime and violence, and provides a good, di- gnified place for veterans to get off the streets. Veterans deserve the best after all we’ve asked of them, but all too often they get the worst – so it’s about time this solution came along. Check it out.

When the city of Los Angeles pledged to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015, it had no idea what it was getting itself into.

Mayor Garcetti made the promise in the summer of 2014, but he had to alter his goal when it became clear just how bad the situation was for homeless vets in LA. However, with the help of a local non-profit and funding from bond money, they’re making a big dent.

Step Up, a non-profit committed to supporting people with mental illness, has been helping to convert old, abandoned properties into proper housing for homeless vets.

With vouchers funded by the Department of Veteran Affairs, vets will be allowed to live in these apartments for up to 15 years, free of charge.

With such a large problem, however, it will take the efforts of many groups to turn the situation around. Volunteers of America is also helping out, developing another run-down motel into a 100-unit site.  

“Instead of allowing blighted properties to decay, let’s use them to make powerful change in our communities by giving our veterans the access to services and housing that they need and deserve,” said Mayor Garcetti.

President George W. Bush’s homelessness czar, Philip Mangano, noted that other communities across the nation can take a page from LA’s efforts.

“Nobody else is doing this around the country,” he said, calling it a national model of how private capital and social service agencies can come together to provide large-scale housing for the homeless. And providing dignified housing for veterans is clearly worth the effort.