Dear Editor,
Rick Caruso spent about $100 million running his campaign for Mayor and because he did such a great job getting his message out, I got to hear it over and over and over again. He told me how much he loves the City of Los Angeles. He told me he would fix our homelessness problem by creating 30,000 new beds in 300 days. He told me that the LA Times said that his solutions to help the unhoused were bigger than Karen Bass’.
I am a member of the Exchange Club of Culver City and we just finished up our 3rd annual Tribute to Heroes. Speaking as an individual and not as a representative of the club, I have to say how inspired I was by our event. You may have seen the flags displayed around the Veteran Building over the past weeks. Each of those flags was sponsored by a friend or relative of a veteran or first responder with the profits from the event going to an organization called “New Direction for Veterans” that works tirelessly to house homeless Vets and help them in their healing.
I was listening to the radio on my way home from church Sunday. They were reporting that we still have over 3,000 homeless veterans living on our streets, under our bridges and by our freeway on and off ramps, and that there was enough space on the Veteran’s Administration Campus in Westwood to build housing and put every one of them under a roof.
My first thought was that our valiant efforts at the Exchange Club, while not insignificant, would not get these 3,000 veterans housed quickly enough for my taste when even one day and night on the streets is a tragedy for these men and women who served our country so well.
Is there someone who could do this? Someone with the will and the resources? Someone who really loves LA and is committed to ending homelessness. If someone were to take this on, he would truly be a hero and could probably get elected Mayor of Los Angeles someday. But who would that person be? Any thoughts?
Larry Weiner
