The Cost of war is at least $3.7 trillion and counting (reuters) as 8,000 homeless veterans on the streets of LA (CBS) remind us that money is the easiest thing to forget about the war.
They paid their debt in full but ...Who takes care those who gave all for our freedom?
"They served this country in it's time of need," says lead counsel, Marc Rosenbaum. "So it is our moral and civic duty to serve them in their time of need."
Please read more by CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.
Related?
They paid their debt in full but ...Who takes care those who gave all for our freedom?
LA is the Homeless Vets capital of the U.S. with more than 8,000 on city streets. It makes Cordova angry again especially since just blocks away sits almost 400 acres -- half the size of Central Park -- donated to the U.S. government after the Civil War expressly to provide housing for disabled veterans.
"I know for a fact that I am different now," Cordova says, "that I experience anger and hate at a whole 'nother level."
After intensive Veterans Affairs (VA) counseling he keeps his rage under control and channels the negative into positive.
With the city encroaching on all sides, the VA now leases about one-third of the property for private use: to a bus company, to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, for UCLA's baseball stadium and a private school's athletic field. There's even a golf course and a dog park.
There's no public record of where the money goes.
"To let them live on the street and die when we have this sort of facility is un-American," Shriver says. So he joined veterans and the ACLU in a lawsuit to force the VA to rehab this facility to house two to three hundred veterans with PTSD. "They served this country in it's time of need," says lead counsel, Marc Rosenbaum. "So it is our moral and civic duty to serve them in their time of need."
Please read more by CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.
Related?
