- You know it's not the same America it was
when I was a kid.
Things have changed a lot.
- [Interviewer] Rob, you are helping the veterans here.
- [Rob] Yes.
- [Interviewer] You know the history of veterans row.
- [Rob] Yes.
- [Interviewer] Tell me about it.
- So we had been raising concerns about homeless veterans
on San Vicente Boulevard long before veterans row
went into place with the large tents.
In 2019 there was veterans out here
sleeping all over the sidewalk.
There was never any outreach
or anyone really paying attention to them.
I was actually inside the VA
going through a combat treatment myself
and I didn't like what I was seeing out here.
I had went through it when I came here
to get services as well.
And so we were making complaints
to the VA inspector general office.
There's like a white house hotline for the VA
that you can call,
multiple different agencies.
No one was doing anything.
We started going to these federal advisory board meetings
and bringing the veterans with us,
just trying to figure out why
people weren't answering the concerns
of the homeless veterans.
At that time, you know, we met some people in the community
and some Vietnam veterans that explained to us
the history of, you know,
there's land fraud that's going on here.
And I, myself didn't really understand
the relation between not taking care of the veterans
and misappropriation of land.
- [Interviewer] It's been,
so I have worked here as a case manager
and I used to bring veterans down here
to the hospital and there was.
And we're talking 10 years ago
and there was always homeless vets out here.
It almost looked like a science fiction movie.
Like you would see that you go to a military hospital
and there's all these injured outside.
And it was very overwhelming
that nothing was being done to help them.
And that seems to be continuing.
- It is continuing.
That's one of the biggest things.
And it's like a horror movie inside.
You see a lot of these buildings that are just empty.
They're dilapidated.
There's been a lot of money that's been allocated
to build veteran housing.
There's been a lot of promises to build veteran housing.
Los Angeles is still the nation's Capitol
for veteran homelessness and it's absolutely unacceptable.
And what it all ties into here at the west LA VA
is the VA is more concerned with their real estate business
and leasing out the property,
always making these promises
that they're going to use the revenue from leases
to go to build housing, but it never happens.
And you know, it's a lot of developers in the area,
special interest groups that look over
and they see all this land
and the location and they see dollar signs.
And it's just really unfortunate to see
that we're sitting here, you know,
veterans are dying on the street
and we're fighting over people trying to get the land.
We just want them inside.
- [Interviewer] So there's tents inside?
- [Rob] There's tents inside.
- [Interviewer] And I was told that was kind of a response
to you guys being outside here.
- Yes.
So in February of 2020,
we rented a school bus and we took all the,
it was like 15, I believe at the time 15 veterans,
we went down to judge Otero's office at LA city court.
He was the judge that presided over
the Valentini vs. Shinseki lawsuit.
When veterans sued the VA for misuse of land.
We went there and we had sworn declarations that the VA
was not doing anything to help homeless veterans
because at the conclusion of that lawsuit,
there was a number one objective.
And that was to end veteran homelessness by 2015
and beyond.
And additionally it was to create an exit strategy
for these illegal leases and get veteran housing built.
And it's 2021 and none of that's been done.
- [Interviewer] When Obama took office
that turned ending veterans homelessness became a priority.
- [Rob] Yes, and I believe in 2014 mayor Garcetti pledged
to first lady Michelle Obama,
that he was going to end veteran homelessness.
So there's been a lot of lies, a lot of broken promises.
- [Interviewer] Well the government says
that they've ended veterans homeless,
well there's even nonprofits,
that claim they've ended veterans homelessness
in like 80 cities in the country and bullshit.
- [Rob] You can easily do it here.
And I mean, this just goes to show.
- [Interviewer] It can be done.
- Everybody here is connected with services.
They meet with VA, doctors outreach, I mean everything.
We bring everything out here for these guys.
And, you know,
even for all the entities that come in to help,
it's still a long process.
Like we have 11 veterans right now that are waiting
to move into this step up on second Western housing.
It's over on central LA.
It's not the most ideal location, but it's newly renovated.
And so 11 of these guys will be going there
and we kind of worked it out
so where they can move as a group,
so they can keep their community.
But that's been delayed
with the housing authority for months.
Their paperwork's done, everything.
- [Interviewer] And you were telling me
that there's been bureaucracy
and all kinds of madness with COVID and congregate shelter.
So tell me all that again.
- Yes.
So February went down to judge Oteros,
about a month and a half after that,
we received a press release from the VA
with a picture of all of us at the courthouse.
And they said they were opening CTRS the inside encampment.
A couple veterans had a bunch of these tents
ready to donate to the inside.
However,
the VA turned down those donations
and instead gave the veterans small little pup tents.
And we were having hard times with the disabled guys
getting in there.
- [Interviewer] So wait, the homeless veterans
were going to donate tents.
- [Rob] Another veteran,
another veteran who lives in the area.
- [Interviewer] Oh another veteran
was going to donate tents.
- [Rob] Yes.
- [Interviewer] And they had problems with that
and the government decided
we're going to do these little pup tents.
- Well, I can tell you exactly why they did that.
So Brentwood school on the property
is one of the illegal leases
that's called out in the 2018 federal audit
and also in the Valentini vs. Shinseki lawsuit.
So what the VA does to try to show
that these leases can be on the property.
They try to make it appear
that they principally benefit veterans, which they don't.
So they'll tend to take all the donations
from these illegal leases
instead of taking it from other veteran groups
to try to show like that they're doing something
for veterans.
But the fact is these people aren't veterans
and the furthest thing from it.
And it's like, this is the position we get into.
- [Interviewer] So help me understand this.
The people governing this aren't veterans.
- [Rob] Well, the VA, the directors are veterans,
the influence over the land
is from people that are not veterans.
It's special interest groups.
- [Interviewer] The developers?
- [Rob] The developers, yes, yes.
- [Interviewer] And so they're making money somehow
on these leases and it's not going to help veterans.
- [Rob] It's not going to help veterans at all, no.
I mean, look at this place.
It's ridiculous, like a ghost town inside.
And it's a fight just to get people in.
There is no like same day services, that rarely happens.
It does happen sometimes.
But right now the VA closed down
the homeless veteran welcome center,
closed down their emergency shelter beds.
So we can't even send anyone there any longer.
And right now it's CTRS.
If we wanted to get someone inside the CTRS
and they showed up, they would have to go to building 500,
to go get a COVID test.
And then have to go to another building
to get a referral to get in.
And then they have to make it back over
to the inside encampment before 2:30 PM,
which you hardly ever can.
And then they're told they gotta come back the next day.
And then the VA police tell them
they have to leave the property.
So they end up out on the sidewalk with us.
So there's some really simple fixes to this.
There should be immediate same day sheltering,
a veteran shows up, he's a vet,
just give him a place to stay
until everything else gets worked out.
But it's, you know,
it's been a push and shove match the entire way.
- [Interviewer] Has it gotten any better?
Cause I, you know,
I've been upstate New York and taking care of my mom
and I've heard rumors that the veteran administration
is trying to work on the bureaucracy.
- [Rob] I think this,
look, we have a lot of engagement from the VA directors,
management here, the employees,
there's just a, it's like a stranglehold on the property
from these special interest groups that want to get on here.
We have so much support that we could just bring inside
if we could get something working correctly inside the VA
to stop this from happening,
because it's going to take a little bit of time.
You have to get things operating correctly inside
so that this does not happen.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
So, I'm not the smartest guy,
and it's kind of trying to understand it.
So the VA is supportive.
It's the special interest groups that control the leases
on the buildings that are roadblocking everything.
- Absolutely absolutely.
Third-party interest on the property
is why we're in this position.
- [Interviewer] Jesus.
- It's just, it's very hard there.
Especially our elected officials, Congressman Ted Lieu,
they're more interested in appeasing their wealthy donors,
the illegal land users, the special interest groups,
then they are working with the veterans.
For instance, this has been going on for 15 months.
We've met with everyone out here.
Sheila Kuehl's office, council member Bonin,
Nithya Raman was out here at one point,
you know, LAPD, the sheriffs
and discuss this whole situation.
And we've been requesting Ted Lou's office, his district.
He's the one that's writing legislation
that affects everyone here at the VA, to come.
And he does not come, no one answers or anything.
The veteran service organization leaders,
they reach out to them as well.
They don't answer.
And Ted Lou just recently passed HR seven 11,
which is the west Los Angeles improvement act.
Biden signed it into law I believe last week,
but it's under the guise that they're going to do
a lot of really great things for veterans.
But if you don't know the history,
you're not gonna understand what's actually happening.
They're saying that they're going to take money
from leases to build veteran housing.
However, the leases they're talking about taking money from
were adjudicated in federal court,
as unauthorized by law and therefore void.
And were also called out in the 2018 OIG federal audit
as being illegal or improper.
So it's never like they're really trying to do something
to get these guys, you know, immediate shelter.
They're talking about building housing
over the next 10 years.
And it's every time they get caught
with these little land deals, they do a big PR stunt.
Hey, we're going to do all these wonderful things.
And then it gets tied up with,
we're waiting for environmental impact reports
or infrastructure upgrades.
It's always something.
- [Interviewer] Oh geez.
Tell me who's here.
I mean, it's at least 50 tents.
- Yeah, so there's 45 veterans out here
with their family members.
Some of them have their family members with them.
We get people into housing every week.
Someone will get in,
you know, we've got people in the hotel vouchers,
different programs in the VA,
but just as fast as we get them in more show up.
So it's a struggle.
It's a struggle.
- [Interviewer] How, well, one thing before I do that,
it was getting close to an end here.
I was overwhelmed.
I've seen photos,
but I was overwhelmed coming here.
4th of July.
It was overwhelmed, but they're so very nice,
very welcoming.
I mean, homeless people are nice.
I walk into camps all the time.
They're nice.
Here you guys were exceptionally welcoming.
Doc, who we met is a core man
and he was like, let me help you hand out socks,
that's what I used to do.
And it was just a feel good moment.
And seeing, you know, people hang out, talking,
but there's also some serious problems,
mental illness and different things here.
These people need help.
- Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a lot.
There's full gamut of everything here,
but they all, they are all really good guys.
I'm really proud of them.
They do a really good job just keeping stuff clean,
supporting one another, helping one another,
you know, working with the community as best they can.
This is a difficult situation for everyone.
And it just goes to show, you know,
they were trained before, they were in the military.
They just need another chance.
You know, everybody gets into a bad position sometimes,
but we have to have the right system in place
to actually get these guys taken care of.
And it's just not happening today.
Any person that raised their right hand
to defend this country,
should be given that opportunity
to be taken care of the right way.
- [Interviewer] How can somebody watching this video help?
- Oh, it's a difficult question.
I mean, spreading just spreading awareness about it.
If anyone's in the area, I mean, you can always stop by.
We can always use donations, you know, trash bags,
cleaning materials, brooms,
dustpans, hand sanitizer, things like that.
Any camping essentials.
We've had really no help from the city,
county, and the federal government,
everything's been done on private donations,
just from, you know, people that drive by
that take the time to understand what's happening
and see that there's, you know, an injustice happening here.
And this is just, it's not right.
- [Interviewer] And I'll put a link below for advocacy,
that's state and federal level, but this is all the way.
This is federal state and local
and people need to reach out to their politicians.
- Absolutely.
Definitely help.
- [Interviewer] Well, thank you very much for talking.
- Thank you, appreciate it.