MVA VSOs continue to serve the LA County veteran community. During the month of July:

• 1,050: Number of veterans served at Bob Hope Patriotic Hall and MVA field offices
• 2,106: Number of claims filed 
• $639,877: Total sums awarded from all claims activity. (Source: Vet Pro).

(Photo: MVA Director Jim Zenner welcomes guests at last week’s Los Angeles Veterans Orientation held at Patriotic Hall.) 

From the Director

Growing to Meet the Need

I hope you and your family have found some time to recharge this summer. We certainly dodged a bullet this month when Tropical Storm Hilary didn’t do the damage some had forecast. That said, I believe our department was well-positioned to adapt and respond had conditions been worse.

Unfortunately, severe weather always impacts those most vulnerable the worst.  This is particularly true for those experiencing homelessness, including the approximately 1,800 veterans currently listed on the by-name list. Of those, around 50% receive no benefits and that doesn’t even account for the rest of 3,878 unhoused veterans living in our county. This must change, and we continue to work with other county departments to ensure homeless veterans are guided toward a streamlined claims process.

To meet that need, we’re growing to meet the need here at MVA. By next month, we will have a presence at each Rally Point in the Veteran Peer Access Network (VPAN), ensuring an abiding presence in every supervisorial district. 

Our growing number of Veteran Service Officers continue to demonstrate growth, knowledge and confidence in their duties, a direct result of the mentorship and leadership provided by their supervisors. To that end, on Fridays we’ll remain closed in the afternoon for administrative purposes so new hires can receive the training they need to reach their full potential as benefit reps in the field.

We have a growing need for volunteers, and to that end we’ve brought on an experienced individual with a background in software engineering as we seek to reduce staff time onboarding volunteers for duties like a full-time concierge in the lobby of Patriotic Hall.

I recently attended a suicide prevention academy in New York, where Los Angeles was the only county joining seven states, a recognition of our pioneering work on the Veteran Suicide Prevention Team along with our partners at the Veterans Administration, Departments of Mental Health and Public Health, and the Los Angeles Medical Examiner.

We’re well into our rotating town hall schedule in which we appear jointly with the VA and VPAN to increase awareness in our community about the PACT Act, fraud prevention and other pertinent issues.  These meetings will take place on a biannual basis in each district, most recently in Whittier and Lawndale.  The next one is scheduled for the end of September in SD3.

As we near the close of an eventful summer, we see an even more eventful autumn on the horizon. But with the team we’re assembling and their collective energy and ideas, MVA stands ready to meet the challenges ahead and I remain honored to be a part of that effort.  As always, your support in that mission is critical and greatly appreciated.

After an absence of three years, MVA Veteran Service Officers (VSO) are back at the Tibor Rubin Veterans Administration Medical Center in Long Beach.

VSOs started manning the facility in 2016 but operations ceased with the COVID shutdown in 2020.  The newly reopened Veterans Resource Center is also in a new location, which features a number of advantages over the previous space:

• Streamlined front desk experience with full-time receptionist
• Located on the right side of the main building; visitors can walk directly into the center instead of navigating the hospital
• Parking conveniently located

Walk-ins are welcome from 8:00 a.m. until noon, with appointments from noon until 4:00 p.m.  There are three ways to make an appointment:

• Visit the MVA website: locations – Military & Veterans Affairs (lacounty.gov)
• Email the VSO at tapodaca@mva.lacounty.gov
• In-person

Added bonus:  Human Resources is co-located with the center so vets can access their medical records without leaving the building.

Address:            Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center

                             Veterans Resource Center

                             Building 165, Room 108

                             5901 East 7^th St

                             Long Beach, CA  90822

VSOs Tiffany Apodaca and Dennis Campos are currently assigned to this location.

Veteran Service Officer (VSO) Tiffany Apodaca is a local, born and raised in Carson, Calif.  But that hasn’t always been the case.  After working in local law enforcement following high school, she decided on what she calls “a different path in life.” 

“I knew I could do more and wanted to do it,” she explains.  “I wanted to see the world and I was able to see it.”

Life after the Navy proved more difficult.  Struggling with the transition, Apodaca even found herself homeless at one point before deciding to use her VA education benefits to go back to school at California State University, Los Angeles, earning a B.S. in Sociology.

While there, she discovered the VA work-study program which ultimately led to her getting hired as a Veterans Claims Assistant in 2013.  The job appealed to her because of the commonality she felt with the veterans she was assisting.

“That’s why I’m so passionate about my job,” she said.  “Because I know the struggles veterans go through when they get out.” 

After a decade in the business, Apodaca has no regrets:  “I wanted to do something with my life.  If I had known someone like me today back then I wouldn’t have struggled.”

When not helping other veterans avoid their pitfalls, she “loves to dance, have fun, and spend time with family” (including a husband, three kids and 4 dogs).

Community Corner

Deported Veterans Chronicled in Photography, Film

Joseph Silva is on a mission.

For the past seven years, the Los Angeles photographer and Navy veteran has traveled the world, shooting hundreds of rolls of film and filling “multiple hard drives” raising awareness about the deportation of veterans from the U.S.  He currently has a short film on the subject screening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). 

According to research conducted by PBS SoCal, “The U.S. has deported tens of thousands of military veterans since the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.”  Although the exact figure is unknown, some estimates point to at least 94,000.

Silva is driven to raise awareness because awareness is everything.  “A lot of people don’t know about deported veterans, of if they hear about it, they don’t believe it,” he said at a recent Pathway to Citizenship event sponsored by CalVet to help undocumented veterans and their families start the application process.

He says many undocumented immigrants enlist in the military based on erroneous advice that it leads to citizenship. 

“They tell me ‘I put my hand up and took the oath and thought I’d become a citizen’.”

While military service may help facilitate the process, citizenship is anything but automatic, and many find out the hard way.

You can follow Joseph Silva and view some of his work on Instagram:  @josephsilvaphotography.

(Photo: MVA Director Jim Zenner talks with photographer Joseph Silva at a citizenship event for undocumented veterans held in the East L.A. Veterans Center on Aug. 26.)