A Pallet shelter village exclusively serving the needs of unhoused Veterans in Los Angeles has increased in capacity. The village opened in November 2021 with 28 shelters. There are now 110 shelters at the site and two 800 sq. ft. community rooms that will be used as dining halls.
Residents at the village have a variety of amenities in their shelters: a foldable bed, personal climate control, windows, electrical outlets to power personal devices, fire safety equipment, and a locking door. They have access to meals, bathrooms, and showers.
VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System operates the village. It's part of their Care, Treatment & Rehabilitative Services (CTRS) Initiative, a low-barrier-to-entry outreach program. It provides Veterans a safe, clean, designated Pallet shelter living and an area for tents. The goal is to improve health outcomes for unsheltered Veterans while moving toward permanent housing. CTRS Supervisor Chanin Santini said participants have access to mental health services, social services, peer support, and case management.
"We also have battlefield acupuncture. We connect with our integrated health and wellness program. So Veterans can participate in yoga and Tai Chi, and other treatments," Santini added. "We have whole health classes that happen almost daily. Some of them are simple storytelling groups. There's also a healthy kitchen class that happens once a week."
The CTRS initiative began in 2020. According to VA officials, of the 507 Veterans who have participated, approximately 40% have moved into transitional housing. About 25% are now in permanent housing. CTRS is part of a larger strategy at the VA to house Veterans in the greater Los Angeles area.
"We really want to interdict that pipeline before veterans become homeless," shared Robert McKenrick, Deputy Director, Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
Within ten years, they plan to build more than 1,200 units of permanent supportive housing.
Building the Village with Partners
Numerous organizations came together to bring Pallet's dignified shelters to the VA campus. The VA provides licenses for the sleeping cabins to be used for CTRS. Partnerships include AyZar Outreach, Village for Vets, Brentwood School, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lennar, and HomeAid.
Schwarzenegger donated $250,000 to Village for Vets to purchase 25 Pallet shelters after visiting Veterans at the site on Thanksgiving Day. He returned days before Christmas after they were set up.
“Today, I celebrated Christmas early. The 25 homes I donated for homeless veterans were installed here in LA. It was fantastic to spend some time with our heroes and welcome them into their new homes,” Schwarzenegger wrote on Twitter.
Below is a report on his visit.
Building the Pallet shelters at the VA involved many individuals' dedication, time, and effort. Pallet's deployment team partnered with Village for Vets, HomeAid Los Angeles, and Team Rubicon to assemble the structures. Team Rubicon is a nonprofit organization serving communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service by helping people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises. Team Rubicon's “Greyshirts,” or volunteers, were uniquely qualified to bring the village to life, with the bonus of helping their fellow vet in a time of need.
Later this month, 15 additional sleeping cabins will be placed on the campus.
As evidenced by the VA site and all Pallet shelter villages, we can help our most vulnerable neighbors when the community comes together.
Case Study: Uplifting At-Risk Veterans
Silicon Valley, where innovation and tech dreams come to life, is nestled in Santa Clara County, California. Google is just one of many notable companies headquartered there. But thousands outside of that privileged bubble are focused on a more basic challenge — finding a safe place to sleep at night.
The opening of Casitas de Esperanza, or "Homes of Hope," in San Jose is one way the county addresses their needs. The site has 25, 100 square foot Pallet shelters for families experiencing homelessness. The shelters are equipped with folding beds, storage, windows, and heat and air conditioning. It's a dignified option for people living on the margins. Showers, bathrooms, and a community room are also on-site for residents to share. The site is managed by Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment.
Among the families who moved in were a couple who were evicted from their home after losing their jobs. They bought an old RV with savings, but it started breaking down. They were able to move into one of the shelters with their two daughters and are on their way to stability.
San Jose Conservation Corps crew begin unloading the panels of a Pallet shelter.
It only took a week to assemble the Pallet shelters at Casitas de Esperanza. We partnered with the San Jose Conservation Corps, a multi-faceted program that utilizes a combination of education and job training for adult youth, to put them together.
Victor Lopez with San Jose Conservation Corps served as the construction crew leader on-site. For him, it felt great to contribute to a solution of bringing people inside. The partnership allowed Lopez to strengthen his planning and production skills to lead the team.
"I had to teach other corps members how to be communicative and how to actually put all this together," he shared.
Each individual Pallet shelter is connected to electricity to power residents' personal devices, lights, and the heating/cooling unit. Casitas de Esperanza is unique because it uses renewable energy captured by a BoxPower microgrid. The system utilizes solar panels, batteries, and a generator which are all incorporated in and on top of a shipping container. This option saved the county approximately $600,000 compared to the utility company's initial quote to power the community.
“Pallet is truly a social purpose company, driven on every level by its mission to house the unsheltered, and this partnership serves as a testament to their willingness to go above and beyond to solve for the pressing needs of the unhoused in our communities,” said Dalan Angelo, sales and partnership at BoxPower. “Our shared values of cost-effective, rapidly deployable, and modular solutions ultimately all helped make this project a highly successful partnership we hope to soon replicate."
BoxPower crews install the microgrid at Casitas de Esperanza in San Jose. Photo courtesy BoxPower
How the BoxPower microgrid works
On sunny and even cloudy days, the sun produces energy through solar panels. The energy either flows directly to the site to power appliances or is stored in batteries embedded in the box for later use. Energy from the battery is tapped into at night. When the batteries are depleted, the generators turn on to help cover both the community's power load while also recharging the batteries for future use. This ensures that when the generator is running, the energy produced is put to maximum use. In the summer months, the community will likely be utilizing 100 percent solar energy. When the days are shorter in the winter months, the generator kicks in to support the community power load.
During the day, the sun produces energy via the 22 kilowatts of solar mounted to each box. Photo courtesy BoxPower
"As a company that strives to make energy accessible to all, BoxPower is proud to bring clean, reliable, affordable energy to the Casitas de Esperanza community,” said Angelo Campus, CEO and co-founder of BoxPower. “We give priority to solar projects that enable better health, economic, educational, and/or housing outcomes for underserved communities — and this partnership with Pallet certainly checks all the boxes.”
BoxPower is based in California. Their microgrids greatly reduce fuel consumption, emissions, and ensure that renewable energy is maximized.
The partnership with BoxPower introduced a cost-effective way to power this community and allowed Santa Clara county to mobilize quickly in conjunction with our easily assembled shelters.
Sheltering people who are experiencing homelessness is an urgent need across the country. By working together, we can provide a solution that creates a more stable community where everyone has a chance to succeed.