TVC Responds to LA Times Reporting on VA Veterans Survey

The LA Times (in an article dated Oct. 16, 2024) shares quotes from Vets Advocacy leadership that are both misleading and inflammatory. They accuse The Veterans Collective of “misrepresentation” and “misleading the community.” They associate TVC with the shameful illegal activity of the past. All these statements are patently false.

TVC has operated with full transparency since it was selected by the VA as principal developer in 2018. Over the years, we have conducted extensive Veteran outreach in good faith.

Despite requesting the full survey results from the VA multiple times over a period of months, they were not shared with TVC until yesterday. After reviewing the data, it is clear that a hotel was mentioned by many Veterans.

However, the LA Times article is seriously misleading: survey data shows that “hotel/hospitality” ranked 33rd out of 51 possible amenities in the “strong interest” category. Veterans identified a stronger interest in other amenities such as parks, a barber shop, and a farmers market, just to name a few.

The Veterans Collective’s mission as principal developer is to build a therapeutic community with supportive housing, services and amenities that create an inclusive and healing environment for formerly homeless and at-risk Veterans. Our task, since we began this project almost six years ago, has been to listen and gather feedback from Veterans in the community, so we can provide the services that are most helpful to their rehabilitation, and ongoing stability and success. The VA survey remains a powerful tool that helps us identify the needs of Veterans, and it is disappointing that the LA Times and other advocates are cherry picking data to further their own agendas.

TVC remains laser focused on delivering on the original promise of 1887 and transforming this underutilized medical campus into a supportive home for wounded warriors. The Veterans survey conducted by the VA – even including the data that we did not have access to – shows that we are on the right track, and we will continue this imperative work until no one who served our country is left unhoused on our Los Angeles streets.