For more than a decade, the West L.A. Armory on Federal Avenue provided a safe winter shelter for hundreds of unhoused Angelenos, including veterans, without incident. Now LA County is planning to replace that temporary program with a modern, year-round housing and services facility. It’s called the West L.A. Armory Project, and it will save lives.

This 167-bed Low Barrier Navigation Center will provide 24-hour staffing, case management, and on-site health and counseling services. It will offer private cubicles, couples’ beds, pet areas, and storage for belongings, all in a secure, well-managed facility designed to help residents move into permanent housing.

Unfortunately, a small group of vocal opponents is trying to block this project with fear and misinformation. They are spreading false claims that it will bring crime to the neighborhood or that it’s being built illegally on “veterans’ land.” None of this is true.

Here are the facts:

• The Armory site is not part of the VA campus and is not covered by the Bandini-Jones covenant. It’s federally owned and leased through the California Department of General Services.
• The site already hosted a 160-bed winter shelter for more than ten years without safety issues.
• The project is legal, CEQA-exempt, and protected under state law as a “use by right” Low Barrier Navigation Center.
• It will be fully staffed and secured 24/7, with no walk-ins — residents will enter only through designated pickup locations.
• Research shows no connection between supportive housing and increased neighborhood crime.
• West L.A. has among the fewest shelter beds per capita in the entire county. This project brings long-overdue balance and fairness.

Homelessness in Los Angeles is a public health emergency. In recent years, deaths among unhoused residents have risen sharply, and thousands more remain without shelter. Projects like this are how we change that.

It’s time for West Los Angeles to do its fair share with compassion, evidence, and urgency. The West L.A. Armory project is not a threat to our community. It is a long-overdue lifeline that replaces fear with hope, tents with housing, and crisis with care.

We, the undersigned, call on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath to stay the course and move forward with the West L.A. Armory project without delay.

Let’s stand together for real solutions, not fear.

Sign and share to show that West L.A. supports housing, dignity, and facts over fear.