VETERANS-HOME FUNDS BILL ADVANCES.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Legislation to fund design work on three veterans homes, including one in Lancaster, passed the state Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and is awaiting approval by the Appropriations Committee, Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight announced Tuesday.

Senate Bill 838, authored by Knight, R-Palmdale, provides $458,000 to the state Department of Veterans Affairs for the design work on veteran homes in Lancaster, Saticoy and West Los Angeles.

``SB 838 provides the dollars necessary to design our long-overdue veterans homes so we can finally give back to those who served our country,'' Knight said.

The funding will come from Proposition 16, approved by California voters in March 2000 to provide $50 million for state veterans homes.

Earlier this month, the state Public Works Board approved the acquisition of the Lancaster veterans home site - a 20-acre parcel at 30th Street West and Avenue I that the city donated for the project.

The Lancaster veterans home has been the subject of a long, grueling legislative battle. Proposed more than 10 years ago and originally planned to house 400 veterans, the Lancaster home was earmarked for funding - along with a similar home in Saticoy in Ventura County - when the ballot measure passed in 2000.

However, the governor twice vetoed legislation that would approve money to build the Lancaster home, saying first that it was too soon to be authorizing spending and then that Lancaster was too far from a Veterans Affairs Department hospital.

In November 2001, a gubernatorial panel recommended building veterans homes in West Los Angeles, Redding and Fresno. But Lancaster home supporters pointed out that the 2000 ballot measure's money had to be spent in Lancaster and Saticoy.

In a third, and ultimately successful legislative push, the Lancaster and Saticoy homes were folded into a package of bills that included the construction of the Los Angeles home.

The homes in Lancaster and the Ventura County community of Saticoy will each have living quarters for 60 veterans, plus adult day care for 50 more, instead of the 400 beds envisioned when California voters approved the bond measure to build them 2 1/2 years ago.

While far from pleased with the compromise, Antelope Valley officials believe there is an opportunity to expand the Lancaster home at a later date.