Six getting house keys in veterans neighborhood
Six more homes. Six more homeowners. It may not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things. In Los Angeles County, thousands of veterans are counted among the tens of thousands of homeless people.
National consensus has been there should be no homeless veterans.
Counting the six veterans and family members who are on deck to take receipt of their house keys in Palmdale in about 10 days, six homes is an improvement.
These veterans may have not been homeless, per se, but some of them have already experienced homelessness, i.e. living without fixed shelter, living without a home that they could call their own.
It is why the “Veterans Enriched Neighborhood” in Palmdale is a big deal. And not an easy deal. It has been years in the making, and years remain to complete the project.
City of Palmdale and California Department of Veterans pitched in to underwrite financing for the 56 veteran-owned homes under construction on 10 acres in Palmdale. It is a phased development that has been building out since 2017 with several phases left to complete.
Volunteers with my employer, High Desert Medical Group, have joined with other major supporters such as the Boeing Co. and PepsiCo, and Lou Gonzales, retired from AV Chevy, to make this happen.
Other participants pitching in on “build days” have included veteran service organizations like Antelope Valley Vets4Veterans and Coffee4Vets. Part of the public park area has a pegola and shaded area names for two founding presidents of Vets4Veterans, Vietnam veteran Tom Hilzendeger and Navy vet Jack Woolbert.
The causes of veteran homelessness are frustrating in a society that professes to value service rendered by people who signed up to serve in war and peace, at home and abroad, leaving family, safety and sometimes sanity behind. Service life has difficulties that don’t translate in civilian society, and readjustment has manifold challenges.
The development, along with dozens more homes in Sylmar, Santa Clarita and North Hollywood, emerged from the vision of Homes4Families CEO Donna Deutchman, soon to be retiring after devoting years of energy and acumen to getting homes built for low-income veterans. A high-energy non-profit board enlisted the assistance of leaders like Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger to help, along with Congressional representatives like former Rep. Steve Knight and Rep. Mike Garcia.
The development is constructed on a model like Habitat for Humanity. In other words, community members have donated dollars, sweat, toil, and maybe a few tears to get these houses stood up like an old-fashioned barn raising in an earlier time when neighbors joined in to help.
James Mumma spent five years in homelessness before finding help with an array of organizations like Vets4Veterans and Coffee4Vets. A Marine veteran of Operation Desert Storm, Mumma now works for the Veterans Peer Access Network overseen by the county Department of Veterans and Military Affairs.
Getting help for homeless veterans “takes a village,” said Mumma, who is one of the veterans who regained ownership in the Homes4Families program.
On Saturday, six more veterans and their family members will receive keys to zero-lot line, custom homes that are designed with attention to calming PTSD triggers and with a variety of handicapped access features.
It is six more homes, with thousands of veterans in Los Angeles County still without shelter, and more across the nation. But the number recalls the story of a boy spotted by an adult on a beach where thousands of starfish washed ashore. The adult saw the boy tossing starfish back into the life-giving sea, one at a time.
The grownup said, “You’ll never save them all.” The boy tossed another starfish to rescue and replied, “Yes, but I saved that one, didn’t I?”