Welcome to One Team!
Together we can end Veteran homelessness.
VA knows it cannot end Veteran homelessness alone. It was with this in mind that the One Team initiative was born.
One Team is a groundbreaking effort that has united VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) and its community partners to move Veterans from homelessness to permanent housing as quickly as possible.
One Team is Veteran-centric and draws on the resources of all available programs to meet a Veteran’s housing and service needs.
Through One Team, VAGLAHS, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs of LA County (MVA), Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) community grantees, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and other providers have been working together to make sure each and every Veteran in need of housing gets access to the services they’ve earned and deserve.
“One Team reorients care so it is ‘Veteran-centric,’” said VAGLAHS Deputy Medical Center Director John Kuhn. “Rather than basing a service plan on a single provider’s capacity, One Team partners work together to share resources, create policies across providers and develop service plans that are responsive to the needs of each individual Veteran. One Team tailors and integrates program services so there is no wrong door for a Veteran.”
Click here to read a recent story about the One Team effort.
When did One Team begin?
The official launch of One Team began with a virtual training in February 2023. An in-person event was held in Pasadena, California, in June 2023. Approximately 170 individuals attended from a variety of different programs and organizations, from members of executive leadership to frontline staff, all committed to bringing their talents to the table in the fight to end Veteran homelessness.
Who is leading One Team?
VAGLAHS Deputy Medical Center Director John Kuhn, who has decades of experience fighting homelessness, led the initial launch of One Team.
There are three co-chairs of One Team, representing the collaborative nature of the initiative. They are Sally Hammitt, Chief of VAGLAHS’ Community Engagement and Reintegration Services (CERS); Jim Zenner, an Army Veteran and Director of MVA; and Chris Gilrath II, SSVF Program Manager for The Salvation Army.
“It has been extremely fulfilling to join this transformative initiative and bring everything the County has to meeting the needs of our Veterans experiencing homelessness,” said Zenner. “Mission first is what Veterans live by in the military and One Team has engrained it into the cultural fabric of our collective work.”
How does One Team help Veterans access permanent housing?
The primary tool for homeless Veterans to access permanent supportive housing is through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA Supportive Housing (VASH) program, better known as HUD-VASH.
When a Veteran is admitted to HUD-VASH, they receive subsidized vouchers that makes their rental costs affordable as well as other services to help them maintain independent living, including access to social workers, peer support and mental health professionals. HUD provides the vouchers and payments to the property owner and VA provides the case management.
There are thousands of HUD-VASH vouchers available for Veterans in neighborhoods throughout greater Los Angeles, and the HUD-VASH team is there to assist Veterans through each step of the process. There are also hundreds of transitional and emergency shelter beds for Veterans in the community as they work towards permanent housing.
Veterans experiencing homelessness can call
Click here for a list of additional resources for homeless Veterans.
“One Team makes the challenging work of ending homelessness in Los Angeles County a lot easier because you are working with many different leaders who bring their expertise and skills to the table,” said Gilrath II. “It literally is One Team: One Team coming together wearing many different hats and toolbelts. Together solutions are created!”
What changes have been implemented with One Team?
Many changes to the system have been put in place since One Team launched.
In collaboration with MVA and LAHSA, Bulk Leasing has been introduced as an innovative new tool to move Veterans into housing more quickly by reducing barriers to access. This strategy is designed to secure a quantity of apartments through a combination of master leasing and Residential and Property Support Services (RPSS). RPSS offers incentives to landlords while master leasing provides the landlord with guaranteed rents.
Through Bulk Leasing, service providers lease an entire building (or bulk of units) all at once. They are then able to move Veterans in without having to go through the typical application process, drastically reducing discrimination and other hurdles Veterans often face, and increasing the utilization of housing vouchers. The first building opened in West Hollywood in June 2024 with 13 units for Veterans. Under RPSS, a second building also opened in Burbank with 38 units, and a third in Hawthorne with 17 units. More are planned for the coming months.
The team has also reconciled the community By-Name List (BNL), which lists all identified Veterans experiencing homelessness that are currently active within the Coordinated Entry System (CES). The CES is a Continuum of Care-wide (CoC) effort between VA and its community partners to coordinate and manage resources, so Veterans are connected to housing and service interventions as rapidly as possible. Now all providers are working from the same accurate data, and 93.2% of Veterans on the BNL have been assigned to a provider to develop a housing plan.
One Team has also expanded the number of staff who can process housing applications, and added five new access points throughout the catchment area where Veterans can be connected to housing resources. In addition to the West LA VA Welcome Center, Veterans can now walk into locations in South El Monte, Hawthorne, Sherman Oaks, San Pedro, and Palmdale and receive the same assistance.
Staff from One Team partner organizations are also receiving comprehensive training about available resources for Veterans in need.
“I am so inspired by the work of our teams,” said Hammitt. “Collectively, we are stronger and together, we will end Veteran homelessness in the Los Angeles catchment area. We hold each other accountable, are committed to our partnerships and resource sharing, and will not stop until every Veteran has a place to call home.”
What results have been seen with One Team?
The 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count (also known as the homeless count) revealed that Veteran homelessness is down 23% across the Los Angeles CoC and 32% in the city of Los Angeles since 2023. During the PIT Count, volunteers count all individuals experiencing homelessness on a single night in January.
In the city of Los Angeles, 2,696 Veterans were counted in 2023 and 1,834 Veterans were counted in 2024.
Across the entire Los Angeles CoC, which includes the whole county except Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach, 3,878 Veterans were counted in 2023 and 2,991 were counted in 2024.
In fiscal year 2024, VAGLAHS, with the help of its community partners, permanently housed 1,854 Veterans, the most of any city in America (for the third year in a row) and exceeding VA’s FY 2024 goals for this region by 15%. In addition, referrals to Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) are up 36% since 2023.
Is One Team only in place in greater Los Angeles?
While One Team began in Los Angeles, the initial success of this coordinated approach has led VA to create a national toolkit to recreate unified efforts in service areas across the country. Other communities have also begun implementing the principles of One Team and seeing success.