A landmark trial addressing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) failure to address veteran homelessness and provide permanent supportive housing and healthcare for disabled veterans begins Tuesday, August 6, in downtown Los Angeles. The trial is expected to run through August.
The trial’s outcome will have national implications for how the VA manages veteran care and fulfills its obligations to those who have served and suffered traumatic injuries. It is the most significant trial in the nation’s history examining how the federal government treats our veterans. The class action lawsuit was brought by fourteen courageous veterans experiencing homelessness, together with the National Veterans Foundation, who sued the federal government in December 2022 for its persistent failure to provide housing and healthcare to unhoused veterans with disabilities.
The suit also seeks to hold the VA accountable for failing to carry out its fiduciary duty under an 1888 deed that transferred 388 acres of prime real estate, where the West LA VA Medical Center is located, to serve as a Soldier’s Home for disabled veterans. It asks the court to declare land use leases on the property with UCLA and Brentwood School as illegal and in violation of this duty.
The veterans bringing this action all suffer from serious disabilities such as severe mental illness, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. They seek coordinated housing and healthcare services for all unhoused veterans with disabilities in Los Angeles. 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.
The federal judge hearing the case, Judge David Carter, a marine veteran who served in Vietnam, has rejected the VA and HUD’s motion to dismiss the case (ruling here) and held violative of federal disability anti-discrimination law the defendants’ practice of authorizing veterans’ disability compensation as a restraint on eligibility for permanent supportive housing.
The government has long claimed its mission is to end veteran homelessness. However, in practice, it has consistently fought efforts by veterans and advocates to ensure veterans’ right to permanent supportive housing. This contradiction has prolonged veteran homelessness, particularly in Los Angeles, the nation’s homeless capital for veterans, where on any given night, 4,000 veterans sleep—and some die—on its streets.
The trial follows a significant ruling in the case last month by Federal Judge David O. Carter, who found that the VA’s housing policy discriminates against our most disabled veterans by allowing third-party housing developers to impose restrictive income limitations that disqualify some veterans from accessing affordable housing. By counting disability payments as income, this backward policy has prevented those who are most in need from qualifying for housing.
When: August 6, 2024, 8:30 A.M. PDT. The trial is expected to run through August.
Where: U.S. Courthouse, 350 W. First Street, Courtroom 1, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
For more info about Powers v. McDonough and the trial, including the witness list and key dates, click here.
