A Place That Heals the Wounds of War

Mostly, the transitional living center is a dormitory.

Each room has beds for three or four guys, one bath and a mini fridge tucked under a counter. One room is set aside for two women.

Secondhand clothes hang neatly on clothes racks. Framed photos, knickknacks and toiletries are carefully arranged on bedside tables.

But for the 26 veterans who live there, the sparse quarters are a first step in getting off the streets and back on their feet.

In a flag-raising ceremony at the center Thursday morning, the veterans celebrated both their past military service and their commitment to turn their lives around.

About 60 people attended the commemorative service, which included speeches by the veterans themselves.

“The flag-raising service meant that our service has not been forgotten,” said John Jenkins II, a U.S. Army veteran, after the ceremony.

“My father always told me to serve your country honorably and to protect the freedoms you have back home,” he said. “My sacrifice is minuscule compared to the freedoms my family enjoys.”

Run by VA and L.A. Housing Corp.

Jointly operated by L.A. Housing Corp. and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, the transitional living center is the first temporary housing program of its kind for homeless veterans in the San Fernando Valley.

The 30-bed center has room for 28 men and two women whose past military service is verified by the VA before they are admitted into the housing program, officials said.

The center offers a place where veterans can salve the psychological war wounds that in many cases contributed to their homelessness. They talk to each other about the common experiences of combat and life on the streets.

The 26 men currently living at the center survived the atrocities of the Vietnam War, officials said. Like so many of their brothers-in-arms, they suffered depression, fatigue, confusion and fear. They endured isolation and rejection upon their return home from the nation’s most unpopular war.

“As a group, homeless veterans have things in common that they don’t share with civilians,” said Paul Burton, an administrator with the community care services division of the Veterans Affairs facility in North Hills.

“We see this particularly with the Vietnam group who did not get the same public support as the Korean and World War II veterans,” he said. “It is hard for them to accept help. They don’t trust the intentions of the people trying to help them. Hopefully, we can do a lot to help them.”

Homeless Veterans Can Stay 90 Days

To move homeless veterans back into the mainstream, the transitional living center provides a place to stay for 90 days as well as access to numerous on-site services, including job placement, substance abuse counseling, mental health services, medical care, housing assistance and veterans benefits counselors.

“This is not just a place to stay for a month or two, but a place where we can make a transition,” said John Jenkins II, a U.S. Army veteran, standing in the middle of his room. “The life experiences that other vets have is phenomenal. To have their support is invaluable.”

Jenkins said he lived under a freeway viaduct before seeking help at the VA’s Wadsworth Medical Center in West Los Angeles. Counselors there referred him to the Lankershim Boulevard center.

Living at the center, Jenkins said, gives him and other vets a feeling of empowerment.

“After fighting in a war for our country, coming home and not having a place of our own was an awful feeling,” he said. “Now having our own key to our own door gives us our dignity back and that’s why we are so grateful.”

Jenkins said he is also thankful that he is able to stay in the Valley, a familiar area to him. Before the center opened, he would have to find housing at veterans’ centers downtown or on the Westside.

“Even though I was homeless, I didn’t want to be uprooted,” he said. “It’s important for me to stay in the community. It’s easier for me to make the transition.”

Jop Opportunities Now Available

Julius Funches, another Army Vietnam-era veteran, said living at the center has given him hope.

“I was in the streets and the parks before I came here,” he said. “Now I have the opportunity to get a good job as a machinist.”

There is a certain camaraderie among homeless veterans that doesn’t exist among other homeless populations, Funches said. “Homeless vets take care of themselves and each other more so than other homeless people.”

Harold, an ex-Marine who declined to give his last name, said living at the center has given veterans the chance to get their lives together.

“I look at it like Chapter 11,” he said. “We are all reorganizing our lives.”

’ My father always told me to serve your country honorably and to protect the freedoms you have back home. My sacrifice is minuscule compared to the freedoms my family enjoys.’

John Jenkins II, right, U.S. Army veteran