Army veteran Danielle Chavez stands in front of her new home. (Photo: Billy Glading/The Daily Signal)
SAN PEDRO, Calif. — Thirty minutes south of Los Angeles, nestled into a drought-dry San Pedro hillside, sits the small townhome community of Blue Butterfly Village. Named for sharing land with a preserve for the endangered Palos Verdes blue butterfly, it’s the sort of place you’d never know was there unless you were looking for it. Even then, you may have some trouble.
The women who call Blue Butterfly Village home don’t mind the quiet. They have a noisy past: All are female veterans who have dealt with poverty and homelessness, oftentimes alongside domestic violence, sexual assault, or mental health issues, making up part of what the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs calls the fastest-growing segment of the country’s homeless population.
“Being here is a really humbling experience,” says Danielle Chavez, an army veteran whose five years of service included stints in Iraq, Germany, and Fort Bragg. “This is like, only in your wildest dreams. You look around and you think, ‘Is this really my backyard?’”
After returning from Iraq, Chavez lost her mother and faced the dissolution of her marriage around the same time. She became homeless before a VA worker mentioned Blue Butterfly Village, which is owned and operated by the Volunteers of America. She now lives in a bright corner unit on a freshly paved cul-de-sac with her two young daughters, flown in from a relative’s home in Arizona by Volunteers of America.
Chavez, who suffers from PTSD, is one of four women veterans who moved into the 73-unit community last month, representing a small pilot lease group. A ribbon cutting ceremony drew city councilmen, the Los Angeles mayor, and the U.S secretary of Veteran Affairs.
It was an emotional celebration for the trailblazing, female-focused community — one of the first of its kind in the nation.
