Employee Spotlight
December 13, 2024
Dominic Lopez
Peer Support Specialist
VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
This year, we’re spotlighting VA’s Housing First approach through a series of interviews with VA employees and taking a look at how they’re working to end Veteran homelessness through this approach. Learn more about Housing First.
Q: What brought you to work for VA’s homeless programs?
A: I was in the Navy from 1979 to 2000 and started working with a Veteran's program in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. It sparked my passion for helping Veterans in need.
In the Navy, I commanded a platoon of 42, and it was all about taking care of the troops—connecting them with services, encouraging their morale, and focusing on their welfare. My job at VA now is an exact continuation of that. I'm just taking care of the troops.
I met with an 84-year-old Navy Veteran yesterday. He’s homeless, living in a dilapidated RV. I've been working with him for over six months. I’d get really close to getting him housed and then he’d come up with an objection.
He finally agreed to a project-based unit just yesterday, and he asked me if my bosses would get off my behind now. I said, “You know it's not about that. It's a passion, and I'm just out trying to help my fellow Veterans. Just taking care of the troops. That's what it's about.”
Q: Have you noticed ways in which Housing First principles inform your outreach with Veterans?
A: When I encounter a Veteran, I understand that the Veteran has a right to self-determination.
My goal for housing for them may be different from their goal, and I have to keep that in mind. I have to be respectful of them. If I offer housing to get that Veteran off the street and they say no, thank you, I have to respect that.
But I always get their permission to come back. My experience in doing this job for almost 11 years is that if I keep coming back, they'll accept one of those housing choices that I've offered to them at some point.
Q: Where did you learn this philosophy?
A: When I was a kid, about 10 years old, I shined shoes in a barber shop in east Los Angeles. This man there was talking to another gentleman about respect. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Just because Dominic's a kid and I'm an adult, I shouldn't expect him to respect me. If I want him to respect me, I need to respect him.”
I've never forgotten that. If I want you to respect me, then I ought to respect you. Of course, I’ve had plenty of other life experiences since then, but that was probably the catalyst.
Q: Earlier this year, the County of Los Angeles announced that the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness is at its lowest point since 2016. What message do you have for other Veterans in Los Angeles who we haven't housed yet?
A: Hold on—reinforcements are coming. It's just simply that there aren’t enough of us to go around. We do what we can as much as we can, as often as we can. We may not get to you today, but we're going to get to you.
My community partners are key. There's only one of me, and I have more than 85 communities and municipalities that I do outreach in. It’s impossible for me to get to all those places, so I rely on my community partners, law enforcement agencies, nonprofits, and even citizens to help.
I learned when I was a Navy recruiter that my name had to be synonymous with the Navy. People thought of the Navy, they thought of Dominic. When they thought of Dominic, they thought of the Navy. I do the same thing here.
I inundate my communities with me—with my cards and my flyers—so that when they think of a homeless Veteran, they think of Dominic. When they think of Dominic, they think of a homeless Veteran.
