VA’s Failed Homeless Expert

Vincent Kane

Special Assistant to Secretary Robert A. McDonald

Department of Veterans Affairs

Good Morning Mr. Kane:

Approximately seven months ago, you arrived in Los Angeles as a self-proclaimed expert on Veteran homelessness, even though you are not a Veteran, have not been homeless or lived in Los Angeles.

You have refused to admit that Los Angeles is in a “state of emergency” for homeless Veterans, even though humanitarian Rafer Johnson and LA City agencies completely disagree with your bigoted and bungled opinion.

You refuse to admit that Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles is a 24 / 7 ordeal, but instead, fly back to your home in Philadelphia nearly every weekend at the expense of the American taxpayer.

The coast-to-coast airfare squandered over the past several months for you and Secretary McDonald’s legal assistant, Cameron Gore, could have provided seriously needed emergency shelter for scores of disabled and homeless Veterans on VA property.

You have failed to deliver on Secretary McDonald’s spurious settlement agreement promising to end Veteran homelessness “by the end of 2015,” and Mr. Gore has failed to honor his responsibility to execute an “exit strategy” and vacate the nine illegal occupants on VA property.

Veterans Park Conservancy still has a “National Veterans Park” plaque on public display and your sham of a private “gate opening ceremony” allows anyone and everyone — including dogs — to come onto these sacred grounds while disabled and homeless Veterans are dispossessed and exiled. (photos below)

One does not need to go to Skid Row to see the inhumane treatment of homeless Veterans in Los Angeles as there are homeless encampments right outside the VA’s south gate on Ohio Street and along the northbound 405 Freeway,

Yesterday, inside the VA’s Wilshire entryway at the foot of the “emergency” sign, I came upon a disabled homeless Veteran who had fallen out of his wheelchair and onto the ground and laid helplessly. I called the VA police who arrived and contacted paramedics for assistance. (photos below)

The sight of a disabled homeless Veteran lying on the ground next to his wheelchair on a Sunday afternoon at the VA entryway next to the emergency sign — crying out for help — is a picture of Truth at how seriously you have failed to deliver on even the most basic of your entrusted duties.

Instead of having your own plans, you recently hijacked our mission to transport homeless Veterans from Skid Row to the Los Angeles VA and used it as a deceptive public relations stunt to give the illusion that you are doing something, when in fact it fell far short of success and you fabricated the numbers to further mislead the public.

In addition to the homeless Veteran who had fallen out of his wheelchair yesterday, I came upon another homeless Veteran sitting despondently against the multi-million dollar wrought-iron fence adjacent to the Los Angeles VA. I engaged him and called VA police and the dispatcher assured me that help was on the way.

Mr. Kane, this is your job – not the VA police – and if you were an authentic expert who stayed at his post and worked 24 / 7 to eliminate the homeless problem that you are charged to resolve, we would’ve already ended Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles as promised by your boss in his contrived settlement agreement.

In the photos below during yesterday’s Sunday Rally, the last one is also symbolic of the deceptive “gate opening” to the VA that shows the Grand Lawn behind the open gates being flooded by some sort of malfunction with the watering system.

It’s just another photo of Truth, as this is symbolic of the private and discgraceful “gate opening” ceremony compounded by the feeble and feckless efforts of you, Secretary McDonald and his lawyer sidekick, as all of you have allowed these sacred grounds to “go to the dogs.”

And as a renegade threesome with your own separate cause — “you’re all wet and in over your heads.”

For just once, would the three of you do something honorable and productive and resign from the public trust, posthaste?

Sincerely,

Robert L. Rosebrock

Director, Old Veterans Guard

God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!