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When The State Has No Money, An Expensive Facility For Senior Veterans Sits Half Empty

Meng Meng |
May 22, 2013 | 10:12 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Thomas Lyon moved into the Veterans Home of California in West Los Angeles on St. Patrick’s Day. Nicknamed the State Home, it is a nursing home sitting on the Westwood campus of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Funded by the state, the Veterans Home houses senior veterans who are California residents and over 55 years old

By the time Lyon moved in, his cancer had spread to his abdomen, adding at least 10 pound to his body weight and making it so Lyon needed assistance to walk. But his face lights up as he talks about the State Home, where he plans to stay until the final day of his life. 

“I couldn’t ask for anything better.  It is like a gift from God itself,” he said. 

Lyon has a personal physician, who works with him five days a week, helping him to lose weight. The staff cleans his room every day and does laundry for him once a week. The Veterans Home of California also provides him a special nurse. 

The Veterans Home of California
The Veterans Home of California

“If I run into any problem, I will talk to her and won’t feel embarrassed,” he said. 

As a cancer patient, Lyon gets extra service. His nephrostomy drainage bag is cleaned every day. 

To support senior residents like Lyon, California spent $24 million on this project last year. The Veterans Home of California, however, is running at its half capacity.  Two years after its grand opening, the home only has 156 of its 300 beds filled. 

Ron Brand, the spokesperson for Calvet Homes said, “The facility is only licensed and budgeted to 156 beds at this point and we can not open a single bed without more funding from the state.” 

The next fiscal budget for the State Home, according to J.P Tremblay, deputy secretary of the VA, increases spending to around $62 million. The VA says the new money will ramp up specialized nursing units for senior veterans who need intensive care.  But additional rooms will not become available in the elder residents facility designed for more independent residents.

“People have to understand that we are a nursing home, not a hotel. Before we open up a new unit, we need to get licenses,” Tremblay said. 

Tremblay said the department cannot give an exact number of how many new units will open. 

“It all depends on how fast we get a new license,” he said. 

The increase in state funding reflects a growing number of veterans interested in living at the Westwood campus. But caseworkers who help with veterans housing face nearly every day an eligible veteran who cannot be assigned to the State Home because of no vacancies there. Instead, senior veterans are forced to crowd in free, less equipped federally funded facilities, waiting to be transferred to other facilities or getting a voucher for Veterans Administration Supported Housing(VASH). 

The Domiciliary, twin buildings on the same campus, house 300 veterans, many suffering from trauma and mental illness. Another facility, the Haven of the Salvation Army serves the same function.  This facility stands right by the State Home. Every room at Haven houses at least four people. State Home has a waiting list of 20 veterans.

The Domiciliary for homeless veterans
The Domiciliary for homeless veterans

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Lyon pays 55 percent of his income or $850 a month to live in a single unit with a bed, a living room, a kitchen and a small patio overlooking the VA’s Westwood campus. The whole building has a post-modern façade, and on the inside, many residents say the design and the decoration are “better than three star hotels.” 

Back in his day at the Haven, Lyon received none of these services. 

“You have a bed, three meals a day. That’s all,” he said.

He did not learn until his bill piled high that the Salvation Army Service charged him 50 bucks every time he paid a visit to a nurse practitioner.

“If I know it cost so much to clean my drainage bag at that time, I won’t do that,” he said. 

Lyon said one of reasons the State Home has not became a hot spot is that people don’t know about the place. 

“I had an appointment over in Building 500(VA West Los Angeles Medical Center) and I talked to the doctor. Right before he put me on the (surgical) operation bed, he asked me to tell him about the State Home. He said, ‘Where is this place?’ I said, ‘It is right here on campus.’”

Another resident, Carolyn McNeill, a Korean War veteran, said the rent though “ insanely cheap,” may stop many veterans from moving in. 

“The 55 percent of income covers everything. I can’t think of anything extra. They even have entertainment. They take us on trips. We go to theater. The dinning room gets a menu and you order from the menu. On the right hand are soup, salad, entrée, and desert. On the right side are things that have low calorie,” McNeill said. 

Before McNeill came to the State Home, she lived with her husband, a VP at Dow Chemical. Her husband had cancer and spent many years in nursing homes. 

“I paid anywhere from $6,000 to $13,000 a month. By the time he passed away, all our savings were gone. I had to sell my house. The only thing I did not sell was my car,” she said. 

For McNeill, most of the nursing homes cannot compare with the State Home, even if the private ones are way more expensive. 

“When I was looking for a nursing home for my husband, many of them, you walk in and you smell urinate. It stinks,” she said.

McNeil moved into the Home in October 2010, three months after its opening. But the available spots were quickly filled in a few months. By the time Thomas Lyon applied for a room, only two rooms in the Elder Resident Facility were available. 

When Lyon walked into the admissions office of Veterans homes of California, he said the staff told him “he could never get in.” But Lyon refused to take no for an answer and found someone in the office willing to consider his case. “He read over my medical records, took care of the paperwork and said, ‘Let him in.’” 

Larry Galenta in front of the Haven
Larry Galenta in front of the Haven

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Larry Galenta, a retired flight mechanic for the United States Air Force, has been on the waiting list of the State Home for six months. He lost his house in foreclosure and shares a room at the Haven with five other senior veterans. 

Galenta injured his foot in a volunteer event and had no one to take care of him. With his only son working in Arizona, his house foreclosed, Galenta first stayed in the Domiciliary, and then moved to the Haven. He gets a voucher for Veterans Administration Supported Housing (VASH) and is looking for an apartment at San Fernando Valley. 

For every veteran who comes to this campus, the first stop is the Building 206, where a caseworker decides on a program or a facility.

Galenta said his caseworker told him that the chance of getting into the State Home was small. But he is still frustrated to learn that the Home will not add elderly resident beds this year. 

Unlike the State Home, the Haven is a mixture of treatment center and transitional housing facility. The building accommodates 25 senior veterans as well as over 200 homeless and drug addicted veterans of all ages. 

“People cannot imagine how six veterans live together. We are like bothers, and we have been through similar experience that people from outside world don't understand,” he said.

Galenta’s day begins every morning at 7:30 with a short meeting called "positive start." 

“We go around and say our names-25 guys in the program. After that we have a breakfast. From breakfast then we go to class- memory classes, physical exercises-something a senior would need,” he said. 

For breakfast, the menu switches between eggs and harsh brown, and pancakes. The lunch starts at noon, and dinner sharp at 4:30. Glenta is extremely proud of the fact that the facility has a dietitian to oversee the menu and provide balance. But he does not have many options for meals. Neither does the facility offer room clean service. Senior residents are responsible for tidiness and laundry.

“Most of us in our senior program want our own place. The Haven is not like your own apartment. I live here only because I want to save money,” he said. 

Paul Newman during a softball game
Paul Newman during a softball game

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Tremblay said the State Home is expediting the application process for homeless veterans who have no history of drug addiction and mental illness. Homeless veterans can move in within three days of their application. But the Home now only has one ex-homeless resident. 

Paul Newman, who was homeless for a decade and a dropout of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was admitted to the Haven, though he meets the basic qualifications for the State Home. But Newman said his caseworker never brought up the State Home as an option. 

Sometimes, he walks past the State Home on his way to the golf course. 

“I would stop and look at the awesome building. I heard people say that you must be over 90 to live there,” he said. 

Newman lost his job in 2002 due to back injuries. He suffered from acute depression after being unemployed, and lived on the street and different homeless shelters in Wisconsin and Hawaii. 

On the way back to Wisconsin from Hawaii, Newman lost his wallet and ticket. He lived on a sidewalk in downtown Los Angeles for 10 months until he made his way to Building 500, the VA Healthcare Center. 

“They staff (of VA Healthcare Center) are nice enough to let me sit in the waiting room for months and not give me a hard time,” he said. 

In November, his caseworker from building 206 found him a spot at Path, a transitional housing project at Pico Union. He refused. 

“I told them, ‘I am a veteran. I had veteran problems and why should I go to one place then I have to go to all the trouble to get over here to get all my veteran help. I wait as long as it takes,’” he said. 

Newman has another reason to stay on the Westwood campus. He loves the place, which is in many respects similar to his hometown Wisconsin. 

He lives on the second floor of New Haven, sharing a room with three ex-homeless veterans. One of them suffers from mild ADHD/ADD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and Asperger’s, as Newman said he does. 

“ADD-ers have a nasty habit of talking too much, too long winded. When we are together, we just talk on and on and on”, he said. 

Newman can stay up to 18 months in the homeless program of the Haven. But he does not know where he will be after the program ends. 

“ I have Asperger’s, so it is hard for me to plan for something. But my caseworker will make sure that I have a permanent apartment and community support before I leave here,” he said. 

Lois Bass, an administrative officer of the VA Westwood campus said homeless veterans are generally satisfied with the program they are in.

“Any facilities the campus offers is way better than living on the street”, she said, “ So they (homeless veterans) don’t even think about applying for the State Home.” 



 

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