By James Zenner

I hope you and your family have found some time to recharge this summer. We certainly dodged a bullet this month when Tropical Storm Hilary didn’t do the damage some had forecast. That said, I believe the Los Angeles County Department of Military & Veterans Affairs was well-positioned to adapt and respond had conditions been worse.

Unfortunately, severe weather always impacts those most vulnerable the worst. This is particularly true for those experiencing homelessness, including the approximately 1,800 veterans currently listed on the by-name list. Of those, around 50% receive no benefits and that doesn’t even account for the rest of 3,878 unhoused veterans living in our county. This must change, and we continue to work with other county departments to ensure homeless veterans are guided toward a streamlined claims process.

To meet that need, we’re growing to meet the need here at MVA. By next month, we will have a presence at each Rally Point in the Veteran Peer Access Network (VPAN), ensuring an abiding presence in every supervisorial district.

Our growing number of Veteran Service Officers continue to demonstrate growth, knowledge and confidence in their duties, a direct result of the mentorship and leadership provided by their supervisors. To that end, on Fridays we’ll remain closed in the afternoon for administrative purposes so new hires can receive the training they need to reach their full potential as benefit reps in the field.

We have a growing need for volunteers and to that end we’ve brought on an experienced individual with a background in software engineering as we seek to reduce staff time onboarding volunteers for duties like a full-time concierge in the lobby of Patriotic Hall.

I recently attended a suicide prevention academy in New York, where Los Angeles was the only county joining seven states, a recognition of our pioneering work on the Veteran Suicide Prevention Team along with our partners at the Veterans Administration, Departments of Mental Health and Public Health, and the Los Angeles Medical Examiner.

We’re well into our rotating town hall schedule in which we appear jointly with the VA and VPAN to increase awareness in our community about the PACT Act, fraud prevention and other pertinent issues. These meetings will take place on a biannual basis in each district, most recently in Whittier and Lawndale. The next one is scheduled for the end of September in SD3.

As we near the close of an eventful summer, we see an even more eventful autumn on the horizon. But with the team we’re assembling and their collective energy and ideas, MVA stands ready to meet the challenges ahead and I remain honored to be a part of that effort. As always, your support in that mission is critical and greatly appreciated.

For more information on services or how to volunteer call 1-877-4LA-VETS or visit https://mva.lacounty.gov.