On the West LA Veterans Affairs campus, an Iraq war veteran helps maintain a Japanese garden built in 1968—an oasis volunteers tend every Thursday—while the larger campus still fights for momentum toward stable housing and a true community.
On Thursdays, John Follmer steps into the Japanese garden on the West LA Veterans Affairs campus as if he’s leaving the political fight outside the gate.
He’s an Iraq war veteran and an adviser to Los Angeles County on military and veterans affairs. and he works with homeless veterans across the tough streets of Los Angeles. But standing in the dappled sunlight. surrounded by koi ponds and giant goldfish. he talks about something smaller and harder to quantify than policy: peace. “We are here in the center of the largest city in the United States. and aside from an occasional helicopter. it’s hard to imagine you’re only a quarter mile away from the 405 freeway. ” he says.
The garden—built in 1968—had been left in disrepair when Follmer found it about six years ago. He started cleaning it up, and he’s been shaping it ever since, including newly planted Japanese maple trees. He’s also hoping for active beehives soon. “It’s just such a peaceful place. and I think that this place truly is a deserving place for the veterans. ” he says.
It’s not a solo project. Veterans volunteer every Thursday. One Air Force veteran spends the whole day breaking sticks into mulch. a routine Follmer describes like a kind of meditation. Others come to soak up the quiet. “We always tell the vets, like, ‘You don’t have to come here and work. The simple art of stepping into the garden justifies its purpose,’ ” Follmer says.
The garden sits in a grotto on the north side of the West LA campus. a 387-acre site donated in 1888 specifically for use by veterans. But what the campus has meant over time has been tangled up in crisis and delay. In 2012. an NPR investigation found the VA was using the campus for all sorts of other questionable things while thousands of veterans slept on the streets. After years of lawsuits, protests, and government promises, housing for more than 1,200 vets has been built. Yet construction is still all over the campus, and officials say it’s years behind schedule.
Follmer says he knows that history intimately. The garden gives him an escape from the turmoil. but it also shows what the campus is missing—what it could become. “Follmer is intimately acquainted with the tumult regarding the campus. For him, the garden is an escape. But he says it’s also a key part of what this VA campus needs if it’s going to be a community and not just a giant homeless shelter.”.
He points to something simple and immediate: where the vets can go once they’re there. The people he volunteers with are “a little upset” that. up on the north campus. there are no supermarkets and no coffee shops—nothing to break up the day. He keeps telling them to wait. “And I have to keep telling them. just hold on. something will come. and then it is our job as veterans to make the most of it. ” he says.
That “something will come” is also the posture the White House has tried to project about the broader campus redevelopment. The president promised to supercharge building here, but failed to fund a single new bed in this year’s budget request. The VA told NPR that funding will come later.
There is another pressure point that has drawn bipartisan complaints from Congress: the White House has required VA officials and advocates to sign NDAs about construction on campus. For people trying to push for answers about timelines and living conditions, the secrecy has landed badly.
Follmer’s goal reaches beyond completing construction. The dream is to make the campus a community where veterans want to live permanently—not only when they’re waiting to get back on their feet. He says there’s enough room for preferential housing for hundreds of middle-class veterans who work at the VA hospital. or student veterans. He also wants movie showings in the natural amphitheater below the garden.
For veterans recovering from addiction, he says, the campus needs ways to occupy time and restore direction. “Vets recovering from addiction especially need things to help occupy their time, he says, and maybe inspire them.”
On the garden grounds, that idea becomes concrete in the rhythm of the work. Follmer describes the volunteers turning neglected space back into something livable. “Every single Thursday from sunup to sundown, we’re out here with master gardeners. When something was left for 20 years of neglect, now we’re learning what to take back, what to throw away. … This is proof that one year of consistency can beat back 20 years of neglect,” he says.
He sees the lesson in himself and in other veterans who arrive at the campus. It’s also there in the garden—still unfinished, but stubbornly alive, rough beauty taking shape while the larger promises of redevelopment continue to lag.
United States politics Veterans Affairs West LA Veterans Affairs Campus homelessness housing construction NDAs Congress Trump administration Iraq war veteran Los Angeles County Japanese garden
So they’re putting koi fish in the homeless vets thing now??
I feel like this is nice but also how is this fixing housing?? Like peace garden vs actual beds, you know? Also the helicopters line had me like ok so it’s still chaos out there.
John Follmer sounds like a real stand-up guy but aren’t they supposed to be focusing on the 405 freeway traffic? Like quarter mile away and we’re acting like koi ponds solve trauma lol. Not saying it’s bad, just seems like a distraction.
I read “built in 1968” and immediately thought it was gonna be like, war stuff. But it’s a Japanese garden and volunteers go every Thursday? That’s actually kind of beautiful, I’m not even gonna lie. Beehives too?? Meanwhile the article says the campus is still trying for stable housing, which… why can’t they do both, you know? Also if the VA is “largest city” then why do they still need momentum??