Veterans Housing

For about three years, the Calderon family lived in a rented hut. It was shaped like an igloo, and it sat in a village of huts next to Griffith Park. There were no white picket fences. But here, in 1946, in the middle of one of the city's worst housing shortages, the Calderons began on a successful path to their own home and business in the suburbs.

The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved provisions of President Obama's jobs plan that found rare bipartisan appeal, including a proposal to give companies tax credits for hiring unemployed military veterans. The veterans package proved too irresistible for Republicans to block, as they have most other pieces of Obama's $447-billion jobs package. The 94-1 vote on the eve of Veterans Day came as the jobless rate among Iraq and Afghanistan vets remains in double digits, higher than the 9% national unemployment rate.

A state commission Thursday named Lancaster and two other Southern California cities as possible sites for $30-million, 400-bed veterans homes. The California Department of Veterans Affairs Governor's Commission on a Southern California Veterans Home named Lancaster, Chula Vista and Perris as primary locations. It is not certain if any or all of the homes will be built.

Broadcast industry veteran Thomas J. Wilson has listed his Malibu house at $5,495,000. Called Bella Crest, the rebuilt home overlooks the beach. Its nearly 5,300 square feet includes a high-ceilinged living room, a media room, a temperature-controlled wine room, six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The master bedroom has a crystal glass fireplace, ocean views and remote-controlled draperies. Outside, a lagoon-style pool, spa, sauna, meditation or card room and an outdoor kitchen create a resort-like feel.

The city of Lancaster will spend $1.9 million for 38 acres of land that is expected to eventually be the site of a state veterans home. Sitting as the Redevelopment Agency, the Lancaster City Council without discussion unanimously agreed Monday to purchase the property at Avenue I and 30th Street West from Chung-Yun Chang. Lancaster was chosen last year by a state commission as the next California site for a veterans home.

A cavernous building at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs center--vacant for two decades except for occasional visits by film crews--today begins life anew as a center where homeless veterans willing to commit up to two years to rebuild their lives can receive free drug rehabilitation, housing and job training.

Citing ample space in two existing veterans homes, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have provided $12 million toward building a new veterans residence in the Antelope Valley. "The governor felt that at this time the need for a new veterans home in California has not been established," Davis spokesman Roger Salazar said Wednesday. "A 400-bed home in Barstow is at 67% capacity and a 400-bed home in Chula Vista is at 10%."

Four new veterans homes planned for Southern California will include a $31-million, 400-bed facility in Lancaster, state officials said Wednesday. The apartment complex for disabled and elderly war veterans is expected to serve a substantial number of retirees from nearby Edwards Air Force Base, and will be located across from a new county hospital, officials said.

Scott McKissick walked out of prison last month and managed something he has never managed before: He didn't take a drink, and he didn't smoke dope. This time, when he walked out of Chino State Penitentiary, he had a place to go. He had the Haven at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Los Angeles. Discharged from the Army in 1980, McKissick has spent most of the years since in jail for crimes ranging from armed robbery to parole violation.

The two World War I Army veterans sat side by side at the 40th annual Veterans of Foreign Wars Picnic and engaged in lively conversation. "You got some age on me," Martin De Young said to Homer Holmes, who turned 100 last February. De Young celebrated his 100th birthday in May. "How come you live so long?" Holmes asked his younger friend. "It's the cigars," De Young laughed, puffing away and revealing a toothless smile. "Cigars are the greatest pleasure of my life now.

A bipartisan panel Thursday recommended that embattled Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York be censured by the full House of Representatives for ethics violations, the stiffest penalty a member can face short of expulsion. The House will likely take up the matter after Thanksgiving. Rangel could be the first congressman censured by the body in almost 30 years. The Harlem Democrat had sought a lighter sanction. Before the vote, he asked the House Ethics Committee for leniency, pointing to his 40 years of service on Capitol Hill and saying that in the details of the ethical allegations against him "there was not even the suggestion of corruption.

Officials broke ground Saturday on a new residence hall that will provide 196 units of affordable housing near Los Angeles International Airport for low-income veterans. With airplanes thundering overhead at close range — sometimes as often as one minute apart — U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, Victoria Reggie Kennedy (wife of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy) and veterans from each branch of the Armed Services celebrated the $34.9-million project, which is expected to open in the fall of 2011.

Decades ago, she was a pioneer breaking down barriers for women in journalism. For years, she was in the front rank of the White House press corps posing blunt, often uncomfortable questions to the world's most powerful leaders. But it was her own blunt answer to a question that abruptly ended her career. Helen Thomas, the 89-year-olddean of the White House press corps, resigned as a syndicated columnist Monday amid controversy over anti- Israel comments she made to a filmmaker last month.

A bill guaranteeing that affordable apartments proposed for a San Fernando Valley veterans campus be solely for veterans passed the House of Representatives on Monday despite claims that it could delay or derail the very housing it seeks to support. "The bottom line is it stops a housing project for disabled veterans that has been underway for four years now," said Dora Leong Gallo, chief executive of Community of Friends, a nonprofit developer.

April 27, 1946: Jack Benny and Bette Davis were among the celebrities on hand to help dedicate Rodger Young Village, emergency housing temporarily erected in Griffith Park for 1,500 World War II veterans and their families. Built at a time when homes were in short supply, the collection of Quonset huts was "the largest veterans' emergency housing project in the nation and first of its kind to be opened," The Times reported. Pfc.

The House approved $90 billion in spending next year for veterans, housing and other programs on Friday after Republican leaders overcame complaints that the measure would shortchange veterans' health care. The chamber also voted 352 to 60 to approve a separate bill providing $984 million in immediate relief for victims of natural disasters. House members then left town, finished with their legislative work until September.

April 27, 1946: Jack Benny and Bette Davis were among the celebrities on hand to help dedicate Rodger Young Village, emergency housing temporarily erected in Griffith Park for 1,500 World War II veterans and their families. Built at a time when homes were in short supply, the collection of Quonset huts was "the largest veterans' emergency housing project in the nation and first of its kind to be opened," The Times reported. Pfc.

Citing ample space in two existing veterans homes, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have provided $12 million toward building a new veterans residence in the Antelope Valley. "The governor felt that at this time the need for a new veterans home in California has not been established," Davis spokesman Roger Salazar said Wednesday. "A 400-bed home in Barstow is at 67% capacity and a 400-bed home in Chula Vista is at 10%."

For about three years, the Calderon family lived in a rented hut. It was shaped like an igloo, and it sat in a village of huts next to Griffith Park. There were no white picket fences. But here, in 1946, in the middle of one of the city's worst housing shortages, the Calderons began on a successful path to their own home and business in the suburbs.