Homeless Veterans, Families May Be Housed at Hospital

The Veterans Administration is considering a proposal to house homeless veterans and their families in trailers on the grounds of the VA Medical Center in Westwood, a hospital spokesman said Friday.

The idea has attracted attention from veterans’ service organizations and local homeowners’ groups whose representatives attended a meeting Friday in Westwood with hospital administrators, congressional aides and city officials.

The proposal calls for a maximum of 15 city-owned trailers, which would house one family each, to be placed on the hospital grounds. The trailers would be managed by the Salvation Army, said Michael J. Wootton, an aide to U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.).

“If this proposal was established it would be at no cost to the government,” said Judge Harry Pregerson, of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who proposed using the VA site southwest of UCLA. Pregerson was instrumental in setting up the state’s first shelter for the homeless on federal property. It opened last month in a warehouse in Bell.

Sue Young, a Westside neighborhood activist, said there has not yet been any organized response from area homeowners to the idea.

“I think we have to sit down and discuss it and listen to what is being proposed before we decide,” she said.

VA Administrator Thomas K. Turnage has instructed management at the medical center “to consider the proposal because of its possible merits,” said hospital spokesman Bill Sawchak.

Participants at the Friday meeting agreed that the shelter would be temporary and that the hospital could decide where the trailers would be placed, Sawchak said. A task force of representatives from veterans’ groups, the VA, local and federal governments, the Salvation Army and area residents will be formed to study the proposal.

Based on a study made last year, federal researchers estimate that throughout the country one-third of the 350,000 people who are homeless on any given night are veterans.