VA to provide parking spots in West Los Angeles for homeless veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs will offer parking spots to homeless U.S. veterans at its West Los Angeles location.

City Councilmember Mike Bonin said assigned spots will be provided for the homeless who live in their cars in the next two weeks to help them access social services and, eventually, housing.

The program is a part of an initiative by the VA to build over 1,200 units of permanent supportive housing and over 700 transitional housing units. The city approved using Measure HHH funds to build 110 units of housing.

Measure HHH, which Los Angeles voters passed in 2016, raised property taxes to finance the construction of affordable housing in the city.

Safe Parking LA, a nonprofit organization that aims to end vehicular homelessness, will run the program. Scott Sale, executive director of the organization, said in a statement that although the program initially planned to accommodate just 10 vehicles, dozens more could be accommodated in the future.

Sale said he thinks the Safe Parking program at the VA campus is a model of an efficient public-private partnership and could be implemented in VA campuses all over the country.

The program proposal was supported by over 35 neighborhood councils and homeowner groups.

“This is sign of much more to come on the VA campus, and I hope it is the first of many safe parking sites on the Westside,” Bonin said in a statement.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said in a statement that these kinds of partnerships are important to help the thousands of homeless individuals in the city.

The parking sites are located at the border of Brentwood and West LA and is one of three safe spots for homeless veterans in the city, including one each in Koreatown and South Los Angeles.