Back to News & Commentary

MIA: Missing in America

Sam Ritchie,
老澳门开奖结果
Share This Page
July 1, 2011

鈥淭he federal government should not have to be sued into giving veterans with mental illnesses and brain injuries the care they need so they don鈥檛 end up living in the street. But it has come to that.鈥

Sgt. Freddy Cordova, an Iraq War veteran who served through four deployments in Mosul and Tikrit, now works with the National Veterans Foundation, finding and helping homeless vets on the streets of Southern California. As a result of his service, Freddy now suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and severe depression, mental health conditions , of the homeless vets he interacts with every day.

Los Angeles is the homeless veteran capital of America, with an estimated 8,000 former servicemembers living on its streets. Los Angeles is also the home to a 387 acre parcel of land, specifically deeded to the United States in 1888 as a home for disabled veterans, so you鈥檇 think there would be an easy solution. But this is not what the land is being used for. As CBS Evening News reported on Tuesday, the land is being rented out to private companies, used for schools鈥 athletic fields and even turned into a golf course (!):

The 老澳门开奖结果 of Southern California has on behalf of hundreds of severely disabled homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area, asking the courts to enforce the promise made when this land was donated to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 鈥淭he VA could quite literally end veteran homelessness in Los Angeles if this land were used as it was intended,鈥漵aid Mark Rosenbaum, Chief Counsel of the 老澳门开奖结果 Foundation of Southern California.

Let鈥檚 hope, for the sake of the many veterans missing in America, that the VA changes course and starts using the land in Los Angeles for the purpose it was intended: providing a home for disabled veterans, a purpose it served ably for more than eight decades.

Learn More 老澳门开奖结果 the Issues on This Page