Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass unveiled a new affordable housing project for dozens of veterans March 31, just a short distance away from the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.
Bass touted the 53-unit apartment as one of more than 6,000 projects under construction thanks to her executive directive No. 1, which streamlined permitting and other requirements for affordable housing.
“When I took office, it could take years just to approve an affordable housing project in Los Angeles,” Bass said in a statement. “A maze of bureaucracy and years of inaction by past city leaders left far too many Angelenos and too many veterans sleeping on our streets.
The mayor also made reference to the current U.S. war in Iran.
“We never hesitate to fund war, but when those young Americans come home, too often we fail them — and that’s unacceptable,” she said. That’s why my administration is cutting red tape, building affordable housing faster than ever, and, for the first time in our city’s history, actually reducing homelessness for veterans and all Angelenos.”
Army veteran David Sinatra said he lived in his truck for two years, but now, “I finally have a place to call home and have my life back. I’m just one veteran who fell on hard times, but there are so many more like me,” Sinatra said in a statement.
“I wouldn’t be here today without the mayor’s push to help homeless veterans,” Sinatra said. “It literally saved my life, and that’s no exaggeration.”
Bass’ House Our Vets initiative has placed more than 750 veterans and their families into homes, officials said, part of a 17.5% reduction in street homelessness, according to the 2025 point-in-time homeless count.
“For a long time, it felt like the system just didn’t work,” Simon Aftalion, principal at Passo, the development firm leading the project, said in a statement. “Then Mayor Bass took office and changed that. What you see here today — this construction site — is proof of that leadership. In just nine months from now, it will deliver 53 new homes right here in the heart of West LA, built specifically for veterans.”
“Thanks to our partnership with Mayor Bass, the VA, and property owners stepping up, nearly 800 veterans now have stable homes,” said Lourdes Castro Ramírez, president and CEO of the Housing Authority for the city of Los Angeles.“This is the impact of a coordinated, nimble government response and the generosity of owners who open their doors to those who served our country. With streamlined leasing and a dedicated online portal, we’re moving faster than ever to get veterans housed — and keep them housed.”
