The Veterans Collective is Building America’s Largest Supportive Housing Community for Homeless and At-Risk Veterans
The Veterans Collective (TVC) is well underway transforming the historic West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs North Campus into the country’s largest supportive housing community for homeless and at-risk Veterans.
Currently, nearly 4,000 Veterans are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. The North Campus will play a critical role in helping to address Veteran homelessness in the city.
Once complete, the 70+ acre North Campus will feature upwards of 1,700 units of housing and a community of more than 3,000 Veterans and their families.
It will serve as a thriving, sustainable community featuring modernized infrastructure, restored historic buildings, a Town Center, mental health and other supportive services, and enterprise programs including career classes and opportunities, education resources and a career center.
We are proud to welcome our first Veterans home over the next few months.
Building 207 will be completed by January 2023 — the first of our more than 20 planned Veteran housing buildings to open on the North Campus.
It will house formerly homeless and at-risk senior Veterans in 60 units, and provide a wide range of amenities and services including: wellness programs, on-site case management, Veteran support services, mental health programming, community spaces, laundry facilities, and a fitness center. That will bring us to 237 housing units now operational on the North Campus.
Building 404 was the first new construction to close financing on the North Campus this past November.
This was completed on time despite upheaval in the financial markets tied to inflation and complicated demolition and abatement issues. The $50-million project will deliver 73 supportive homes for Veterans transitioning from homelessness.
By the end of 2022, 617 new units within eight separate projects on the campus will be completed, started, or fully financed.
This unprecedented project to renovate the historic North Campus requires more than $1.1 billion in funding. With support from stakeholders, TVC has already raised more than $500 million, nearly half of its goal.
The project is made possible by a partnership of Century Housing, Thomas Safran & Associates and U.S.VETS, who are using their collective expertise to build permanent supportive housing, wraparound services, and multi-functional community spaces on campus.
Addressing Veteran Homelessness through Public-Private Partnerships
We are proud to have built a public-private partnership of Veterans, stakeholders, the Department of Veterans Affairs, elected officials, philanthropy, and business and community leaders committed to tackling the city’s homeless crisis.
TVC and its partners have received more than $260 million in tax credits and bonds from the State of California, which funded phase one of the project alongside public funding from the Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles. The Department of Veteran Affairs has spent or committed to spend nearly $100 million to update utility infrastructure, remediate dilapidated structures, and address structural seismic deficiencies.
This past spring, TVC launched the Veterans Promise Campaign, with the goal of raising $188 million.
The campaign alone has already secured more than $80 million in private funding for critical pre-development funds, Veteran housing and service buildings and campus operations.
Campaign leadership giving and pre-development efforts are led by Los Angeles leaders across sectors.
Leaders in this effort include Jeremy Zimmer of United Talent Agency, City National Bank’s Kelly Coffey, Hudson Pacific Properties’ Victor Coleman, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, HBO’s Amy Gravitt, NBCUniversal, David “The Admiral” Robinson, long-time U.S.VETS Board member Joe Czyzyk of Mercury Air Group and Wells Fargo.
On Memorial Day 2022, we announced a historic lead gift from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, ensuring the successful development of more than 500 housing units.
Along with building homes for Veterans and their families, these funds will support vital career and mental health programs. Funds are also being raised in partnership with 1887 Fund to re-envision the iconic Wadsworth Chapel as a cutting-edge center for moral injury recovery.
Veteran homelessness is a stain on this nation. Our ongoing work to develop the nation’s largest housing community for Veterans is an important step toward eradicating homelessness and providing Veterans with the resources they need and deserve.
