The holidays came early for 25 homeless veterans in West Los Angeles, California.
In coordination with nonprofit Village for Vets, the Department of Veterans Affairs and veteran service organization AMVETS, Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger donated the tiny homes on Dec. 23.
In a tweet, Schwarzenegger wrote, “Today, I celebrated Christmas early,”
Village for Vets said that Schwarzenegger’s $250,000 made it possible for the nonprofit to “purchase and build the remaining 25 shelters” at the Los Angeles VA’s Care Treatment Rehabilitative Services location.
In October, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said the agency set two ambitious goals for itself to combat veterans homelessness in Los Angeles. One of those was to get all of the 40 veterans living in a homeless encampment known as Veterans Row into housing by Nov. 1. The second goal was to get an additional 500 homeless vets in the city into homes by year’s end.
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"Since Oct. 1 when we made this commitment, 304 veterans in LA have moved into permanent housing or into VA transitional or emergency housing on a path to permanent housing,” said McDonough on Nov. 18.
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Village for Vets provides food and shelter to homeless and at-risk veterans. According to its website, Its tiny houses “provide an elevated standard of living from tent encampments while veterans are on their journey to find permanent housing and stability.”
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.