VA Ordered to Build Thousands of Housing Units on West LA Campus; Leases Voided for UCLA Baseball Field, Brentwood School, Parking Facility, and Oil Company.

In a landmark ruling, Federal Judge David O. Carter has delivered an across-the-board victory for disabled veterans, holding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) accountable for failing to honor its obligations on the West Los Angeles VA campus and ordering that the campus be used to provide housing and healthcare to disabled veterans, as originally intended. The ruling is a major victory for veterans’ rights and promises to transform how the VA treats and cares for its veterans.

“The term ‘veteran homelessness’ should not be in the American vocabulary,” said Mark Rosenbaum, Public Counsel’s Senior Special Counsel for Strategic Litigation. “Today’s ruling holds the VA accountable for its failures and ensures that its West LA campus will finally serve its true purpose as a home for veterans. This nation cannot genuinely hold itself out as the home of the brave, so long as the brave have no home.”

Among other key findings, the Court’s order:

• Voids four significant land-use leases on the West LA VA campus: UCLA, Brentwood School, Safety Park, and Bridgeland. These leases were found to violate the West Los Angeles Leasing Act because they do not primarily benefit veterans and their families.
• Requires the construction of 1,800 additional units of permanent housing for disabled veterans on or near the West Los Angeles Veterans Campus (in addition to the 1,200 units already promised by the VA).
• Requires the construction of 750 temporary supportive units on the WLA Grounds within 18 months.
• Declares the VA’s discriminatory use of income restrictions for affordable housing is unlawful, ruling that veterans’ disability payments should not count against their eligibility for supportive housing.
• Mandates that all VA permanent supportive housing services meet evidence-based standards, and requires increased staffing and improved effectiveness of its housing voucher program and street outreach team.

The lush 388-acre West LA Campus was donated to the VA in 1888 to provide housing and healthcare to veterans. However, the VA only provides a fraction of the supportive housing needed to serve thousands of disabled homeless veterans in Los Angeles.

Instead, the VA entered into illegal leases on the land, including sports fields and parking for an exclusive private school, a state-of-the-art baseball complex for UCLA, and oil drilling to extract oil from neighboring land. Additionally, despite promising in a 2015 settlement to construct 1,200 units of new permanent supportive housing on its West LA campus, the VA had failed to build a single new unit by the time the veterans filed their lawsuit in 2022. Judge Carter’s order calls for 1,800 permanent units to be built on the land within six years (in addition to the 1200 units the VA has already promised) with an additional 750 temporary supportive units built within 18 months. 

Judge Carter concluded his ruling with the following statement:

“What was once a home for disabled soldiers must fully reopen its gates and become a robust community for veterans once again. It is time for the VA’s leadership at the highest levels to recognize its obligation and mission statement to care for those who have borne the battle. It is time for the disabled veterans of Los Angeles to come home.” –U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, Ruling, p. 74

The court will appoint a monitor to make sure the VA and its co-defendants adhere to the ruling. A separate hearing on injunctive relief will be held Sept. 25. 

The veterans in the case, a class action lawsuit on behalf of disabled homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area, were represented by Public Counsel, Robins Kaplan LLP, Brown Goldstein & Levy, and Inner City Law Center.

Read Judger Carter’s ruling here.

Learn more about Powers v. McDonough here.

Media Coverage Highlights:

• CNN, VA ordered to build thousands more homes for veterans on West Los Angeles campus, 9/6/24
• NPR, LA homeless veterans win decades-long fight in new court ruling, 9/6/24
• LA Times, VA must build more housing on West L.A. campus, and UCLA and Brentwood School leases are illegal, judge rules, 9/6/24
• NBC News, Judge orders VA to build more housing for homeless veterans in Los Angeles, 9/6/24
• ABC 7, Judge blasts Veterans Affairs, orders more housing on West L.A. campus, 9/6/24
• LAist, Judge orders thousands more homes for unhoused veterans, calls out ‘broken promises, corruption and neglect’, 9/6/24
• NBC 4, West LA VA campus ordered by judge to build more housing, 9/7/24