Homes For Heroes – An Opportunity for Homeless Vets and Apartment Owners

by Gary Toebben

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald was in Los Angeles 11 days ago to meet with Mayor Eric Garcetti and L.A. apartment owners to encourage their participation in “Homes For Heroes.” This campaign was organized by Home For Good, a partnership between the L.A. Area Chamber and United Way of Greater Los Angeles aimed at ending veteran homelessness in L.A. County by 2015.

Homes For Heroes is a new initiative that encourages landlords to house homeless veterans in market rate apartments. The goal is to engage 1,000 landlord’s by the end of this year. Even though much progress has been made, L.A. County is still home to 4,362 homeless veterans. The good news is that through Homes For Heroes, there are enough rental subsidies to house all of L.A.’s homeless vets by the end of 2015. What we need now is for apartment owners, large and small, to sign up for the program.

Homes For Heroes should be compelling to many apartment owners because it has the financial ability to pay market rents and provide tenants with a network of supportive services. Landlords will be able to screen and select their tenants and they will have a single point of contact with a case manager for a timely response to any concerns.

The place to go for more information about this program, click here.

Doing the right thing for our homeless veterans can also be good for business. With high construction costs and limited subsidized funding for new affordable housing, providing homeless veterans with a place to live in existing buildings is a much lower cost alternative than building new.

Homes For Heroes is an exciting opportunity for both our homeless veterans and the owners of apartments in L.A. County. Help spread the word to large and small apartment owners and thank them for their participation.

And that's The Business Perspective.