Powers v. McDonough

Holding the VA Accountable for Its Failure to Provide Housing & Healthcare for Veterans with Disabilities

UPDATE, Oct. 11, 2024: U.S. District Judge David Carter has submitted his final judgment in Powers v. McDonough, reaffirming his earlier findings and delivering a decisive victory for disabled veterans. Following multiple hearings to determine injunctive relief, the court has issued several key orders, including locking down UCLA’s baseball complex until its activities on the West LA VA campus focus on serving veterans, capping an oil well on the campus, and expediting the construction of temporary housing. The VA is required to build 50 pre-built modular housing units by late December 2024, with an additional order to procure 200-300 additional units in the coming months. This final decision follows an earlier ruling requiring the VA to build 750 temporary supportive housing units within 12 to 18 months and 1,800 permanent units within six years. 

Additionally, Brentwood School has entered into a tentative settlement to continue using part of the campus, agreeing to pay $5 million to support veteran services and expand veterans’ access to its athletic facilities. A preliminary approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for Friday, October 18, at 8 a.m.

UPDATE, SEP. 6, 2024: Judge Carter has issued a groundbreaking ruling in favor of disabled veterans, mandating sweeping changes at the VA’s West LA Campus and ordering the construction of thousands of new supportive housing units. Read more here.

For decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has failed in its duty to provide housing and healthcare to veterans who have fought wars, defended American liberties, and made enormous personal sacrifices. In addition, the VA has refused to provide adequate housing and services at its sprawling 388-acre campus in West L.A. – land donated to the VA in 1888 specifically to create a home for veterans with disabilities. As a result of the VA’s failures, nearly 4,000 veterans are homeless in Los Angeles on any given night, accounting for 10% of all unhoused veterans nationwide. 

In November 2022, fourteen courageous veterans experiencing homelessness and The National Veterans Foundation filed a lawsuit against the federal government for its failure to provide housing and healthcare to veterans with disabilities. The veterans bringing this action all suffer serious disabilities such as PTSD and traumatic brain injury. They seek to secure coordinated housing and healthcare services, or Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), for all unhoused veterans in Los Angeles. 

When veterans return from service, many face daunting, lifelong consequences, including depression, serious mental illnesses, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injuries, and addiction. These challenges render countless veterans unable to fully resume their civilian lives, sustain family relationships, maintain employment, continue their education, or even maintain a permanent residence. Without coordinated housing and healthcare services, veterans with significant disabilities cannot access the mental and physical treatment services they are entitled to and desperately need.

The lush 388-acre West LA Campus was donated to the VA in 1888 to provide housing and healthcare to veterans. But the VA does not offer, on its grounds or within its service area, anything close to adequate Permanent Supportive Housing coordinated with the medical, mental health, and other supportive services veterans with serious mental illness or brain injuries require on its grounds or within its service area. Instead, the VA has 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. The VA’s own Inspector General has made clear that these leases are contrary to both its legal obligations and the intent of our nation’s taxpayers.

More than 4,000 veterans used to call the WLA VA home, and at the time of the lawsuit’s filing, there were fewer than 50 units of permanent housing on the entire property. Housing construction is continually delayed, construction projects unrelated to housing are prioritized, and the VA continues to illegally lease out land meant to house veterans in defiance of the law.

A 2011 lawsuit was filed to address the disability discrimination against these veterans and contest the land use agreements and the alleged violation of the deed. Although the VA committed to construct 1,200 units of new Permanent Supportive Housing – 770 of which should have been completed by now – virtually no supportive housing has been built as of 2022. Leases were executed for 55 units in 2017. Since then, 387 units have been started, but at the time of the filing of the lawsuit, none had been completed.

The 2022 lawsuit calls for the VA to fulfill its commitments to provide appropriate Permanent Supportive Housing so veterans with disabilities can access the health care and housing benefits to which they are entitled. It also seeks an injunction to prohibit the VA from entering into land use agreements that do not “primarily benefit veterans” and violate the charitable trust created on behalf of veterans with disabilities.

On May 15, 2023, the plaintiffs filed an amended suit, pursuing a class action against the VA on behalf of all homeless veterans who reside in LA County. In addition, the complaint was expanded as the VA continues to fail veterans, forcing them onto the streets. The amended lawsuit brought in Marcia L. Fudge, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Douglas Guthrie, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), as defendants. 

The plaintiffs are represented by Public Counsel, Inner City Law Center, and the law firms Brown, Goldstein & Levy, and Robins Kaplan LLP.

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