President Donald Trump Announced on Friday that he will establish the National Center for Warrior Independence at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Campus. The center will provide much-needed assistance and services to homeless veterans, including housing. The president orders that funds previously allocated for housing and other services for illegal aliens be redirected to supporting our veterans.

“During my first term, I signed legislation to increase accountability and expand benefits and choices for veterans in accessing care, and my second term will build on those efforts,” President Trump said in the statement announcing the center. “The VA campus in West Los Angeles will become the National Center for Warrior Independence with facilities and resources to help our veterans earn back their self-sufficiency.”

In 2024, there were approximately 3,000 homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area. This represents the largest population of homeless veterans in the nation, the White House stated. This accounts for about 10 percent of all homeless veterans.

The president’s order states:

Our Nation’s security, prosperity, and freedom would not be possible without our veterans. Many service members paid the ultimate sacrifice. Many others bear visible and invisible wounds from their service. Too many veterans are homeless in America. Each veteran deserves our gratitude.

Yet the Federal Government has not always treated veterans like the heroes they are. During the previous administration, unaccountable bureaucrats treated them shamefully, failing veterans when they needed help most and betraying the taxpayers who rightfully expect better.

The story of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center is indicative of this failure. More than one hundred years ago, Senator John Percival Jones and Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker generously donated hundreds of acres of land that they owned in West Los Angeles on the condition that it be used to house disabled veterans. The campus once featured a chapel, billiard hall, 1,000-seat theater, and housed about 6,000 veterans, but the Federal Government has since allowed this crown jewel of veteran care to deteriorate over the last few decades.