Vietnam veteran Neil Schaffer, lived on skid row, honored at City Hall

Vietnam Veteran Who Died in Skid Row Honored Outside City Hall

NBC 4 News
By City News Service
Published Mar 14, 2019

Neil Schaffer died of cancer last year in room at the Madison Hotel.

Friends of a homeless Vietnam veteran who died last year after living for decades in the Skid Row neighborhood organized a brief military memorial for him Thursday on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall.

Vietnam Veteran Neil Schaffer was remembered at Los Angeles City Hall.

Neil Schaffer, whose friends said he fell through the cracks of society but lived a quiet, peaceful life, died of cancer last Aug. 19 in a room at the Madison Hotel.

Some Skid Row residents raised the funds for Schaffer's cremation, and the ceremony included the release of a dove.

Retired U.S. Air Force Chaplain Doc Cohen, who oversaw the ceremony, said Schaffer served in the military as a carpenter from 1971 to 1973 before being honorably discharged.

"And then it all went downhill. And he struggled. He tried, he got a job, he lost a job, whatever he could do, it wasn't enough, and he died on the streets right here in L.A.," Cohen said.

Another ceremony will be held at Los Angeles National Cemetery on March 31, Cohen said.

The Los Angeles National Cemetery has been closed to new interments of servicemen for decades, but Schaffer's ashes will among the first interred in a columbarium that is opening up there this summer, Cohen said.

Eriq Moreno was one of the friends of Schaffer who helped organize the City Hall service. Although he has a home and career now, Moreno said he met Schaffer about 17 years ago in Skid Row when he was homeless.

"He offered me shelter, and he became a really close friend and a father figure mostly, because I never had one," Moreno said. "When his situation with his health got worse, I knew I had to be there all the way, and I was, and he kind of left me in charge of his arrangements. He made a good change in the world and I just wanted someone to acknowledge that."
read more here

The Saint of Skid Row...Marine Who Was Homeless Too

The saint of Skid Row: How Marine veteran, 67, who became a homeless alcoholic after the death of his wife transformed his life and has spent 15 years helping the masses of huddled on LA's sidewalks
The Daily Mail
By Regina F. Graham For Dailymail.com
22 January 2018

The Marine veteran previously was an alcoholic living on the streets following the death of his wife, Lois, more than a decade ago. That left him feeling lost, and even more so after two of his fingers were severed when he fell off a building while working as an electrician.

Blassingame (right) has provided hundreds and hundreds of people with a labyrinth of resources including finding showers, hot meals, clean clothes, social services, medical or dental treatment, drafting resumes for those seeking employment and more

Wendell Blassingame has dedicated his life to helping the homeless on Skid Row
The 67-year-old sits at a table inside San Julian Park and tells people where to find showers, hot meals, clean clothes, housing, drafting resumes
The Marine Veteran used to be a homeless alcoholic in the area until he turned his life around and decided to work for those in need in Skid Row
His efforts are needed even more now since homelessness increased 26 per cent in 2017 as one in four homeless people in America live in the city
Wendell Blassingame has found his purpose in life: helping others in the City of Angels.

For the past 15 years, the 67-year-old can be found sitting at a table inside Skid Row’s San Julian Park where he helps anyone who needs it, free of charge.

He has provided hundreds of desperate people find access showers, hot meals, clean clothes, social services, medical or dental treatment. He has even drafted resumes for those seeking work.

‘I’m in the business of trying to set an example as a resource assisting individuals with housing and anything else they might need,’ Blassingame told DailyMail.com while sitting at his table in the crowded San Julian Park.

‘Last year I placed 159 people in housing by myself. I’ve dedicated my life to make this a community.’

His valuable and selfless work in Skid Row is needed even more now: homelessness in Los Angeles rose 26 per cent in 2017 as one in four homeless people in America live in the city, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Homelessness in Skid Row has long been an issue for California dating back to the 1930s where an estimated 10,000 people were living on the streets in the community. Historical articles during that time period state that many of the transient people worked as seasonal laborers. Over the years, officials and police have conducted several crackdowns on vagrants which resulted in hundreds of arrests, but the problem still persists.
read more here

Homeless Veterans on LA’s Skid Row Not Forgotten

Searching for Homeless Veterans on LA’s Skid Row 
VAntage Point
Dispatches from the US Department of Veterans Affairs
by Reynaldo Leal
February 4, 2015

VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson participated in this year’s PIT count in Baltimore, Maryland. VA photo by Robert Turtil.

Secretary Bob McDonald walked the streets of LA’s Skid Row with local volunteers and VA employees last week, and tallied the homeless during the city’s annual point-in-time, or PIT count. 

As they made their way through alleyways and backstreets lined with tents and makeshift shelters, they stopped to talk and ask, “Are you a Veteran?”

PIT counts are conducted across the country during the last 10 days of January. The data gathered from the interactions with the homeless is used to verify the effectiveness of outreach programs and to see where resources and services are needed.

For a city like LA, where there are more homeless Veterans than anywhere else in the country, the numbers are vital.

“One of the things you learn in the Army is you never leave a buddy behind,” McDonald said to more than 100 volunteers at the LA Mission. “Unfortunately, we’ve left some people behind, and they’re our homeless Veterans. But I’m here to tell you that we at VA … are totally committed to achieve the goal of ending Veteran homelessness by the end of the year.”

The information collected is part of the overall effort to end homelessness among Veterans. Earlier in the week, McDonald signed a historic agreement dedicating the West Los Angeles VA Medical center to helping Veterans in need.
read more here

Feb 4, 2015 Secretary Bob McDonald walked the streets of LA’s Skid Row with local volunteers and VA employees last week, and tallied the homeless during the city’s annual point-in-time, or PIT count.

As they made their way through alleyways and backstreets lined with tents and makeshift shelters, they stopped to talk and ask, “Are you a Veteran?”

Bikers Hunt Homeless Veterans on Skid Row

Local veterans ride from Whittier to help the homeless
Whittier Daily News
Sandra Molina
August 18, 2014

Harout Aogryan, of the Armenia Brigade Motorcycle club leads volunteers during an event hosted by Vet Hunters Project.
Photo by Robert Huskey

WHITTIER

More than 100 motorcyclists gathered in Whittier on Sunday at a rally point before heading out to Skid Row in Los Angeles to help the homeless and look for military veterans among them.

The event hosted by Vet Hunters Project, “Operation Restore Hope,” helped feed and support the homeless, handing out 1,230 meals.

The Vet Hunters Project is a San Gabriel Valley based non-profit that was founded by Joe Leal, an Iraq combat veteran and advocate for America’s homeless heroes.
read more here

FBI: Hospital used homeless as 'human pawns'

FBI: Hospital used homeless as 'human pawns'
CEO arrested for billing unneeded procedures for phony patients

LOS ANGELES - A hospital CEO was arrested Wednesday in what authorities said was a scheme to recruit homeless people as phony patients and bill government programs for millions of dollars in unnecessary health services.

Federal agents raided three medical centers and the city of Los Angeles sued the hospitals, saying they used homeless people as "human pawns."

More charges are expected, a federal prosecutor said.

Hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties submitted phony Medicare and Medi-Cal bills for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeless patients — including drug addicts and the mentally ill — recruited from downtown's Skid Row, state and federal authorities allege.

While treating minor problems that did not require hospitalization, such as dehydration, exhaustion or yeast infections, the hospitals allegedly kept homeless patients in beds for as long as three days and charged the government for the stays.
go here for more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26061635/

LA moves to halt Skid Row patient dumping

LA moves to halt Skid Row patient dumping

Wednesday, May 14, 2008


(05-14) 14:33 PDT Los Angeles, CA (AP) --

Los Angeles is cracking down on so-called patient dumping on Skid Row.

The City Council gave tentative approval Wednesday to a law that would fine hospitals up to $25,000 for taking patients anyplace but home without their written permission. The ordinance comes back for a second vote next week.

The law follows several high-profile cases of patient dumping, including one last year where a paraplegic was dropped off on Skid Row in a hospital gown with his belongings clenched in his teeth.

The ordinance is opposed by the Hospital Association of Southern California, which says it places an unfair burden on medical centers that already care for some 18,000 homeless patients a year.
click post title for link