By Sarah Flores Santa Monica
Thanks for continuing to cover the saga of the project to house and rehabilitate homeless veterans in three empty buildings on the West L.A. Veterans Administration grounds (“Controversy brews at the VA,” page 1, Jan. 18). As a vet who has been close-to-homeless a few times, I have been watching the project’s progress since Santa Monica Councilmember Bobby Shriver first proposed it in 2004.
I cannot remember more ridiculous/outrageous comments from a politician than those made by L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. He says that rather than criticizing the time-consuming process that may be required to put programs in those buildings, Santa Monica officials should have started that process five months ago, when the VA Secretary designated the buildings to serve homeless vets.
Yaroslavsky is one of the most powerful elected officials in California. What on God’s Green Earth has he been doing to move this project along during the three years that he and his huge staff have known about it? Answer: He supported a feel-good bill of (U.S.) Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s to prohibit commercial development on the West L.A. VA grounds.
This worthy therapeutic housing program has been staring our supervisor in the face for three years. If he had supported it, hundreds of L.A. County’s 15,000 homeless vets would already be turning their lives around in those buildings.
It’s time for Yaroslavsky to put up or shut up — and stop showing up for photo ops. If not, Westside voters should make sure his time in office is up.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 25, 2008. Read the original PDF.