Lawsuit alleges mold, sewage backups, rat infestations, and retaliation against tenant organizers at Blue Butterfly Village, built on a former Navy base to house homeless veterans.
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SAN PEDRO, Calif. –Twelve current and former tenants of Blue Butterfly Village (“Blue Butterfly”)—a supportive housing community built on the site of a former Navy base specifically to house formerly homeless veterans, survivors of domestic violence, and tenants eligible under the state’s Mental Health Services Act housing program—filed a lawsuit against Volunteers of America (VOA), a well-known, mission-branded veterans’ nonprofit that owns and operates the property. The suit, filed by Public Counsel and The People’s Law Project: Los Angeles, alleges that VOA let the property fall into disrepair for years while retaliating against tenants who organized to demand fixes.
The plaintiffs, most of whom are military veterans who experienced homelessness before finding housing at Blue Butterfly, say that VOA and its local subsidiary, Volunteers of America of Los Angeles, failed to maintain habitable housing conditions at the property despite repeated citations from the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), forcing them to live for years with mold, sewage backups and flooding, severe rat and insect infestations, and broken appliances.
When tenants formed the Blue Butterfly Village Tenants’ Association to press management for repairs, the tenants claim defendants’ on-site managers told tenants that meetings were prohibited, tore down flyers, and retaliated against tenants associated with the group, including by threatening them, concealing rental assistance payments made on their behalf, and pressuring them to give up their units. One plaintiff, a veteran who organized fellow tenants, alleges managers concealed receipt of his rental assistance in an apparent attempt to force him out.
“I served this country, and I built a life for myself and my community at Blue Butterfly. I reported problems for months and they went unaddressed, and in the end, I couldn’t stay. No veteran should have to fight this hard just to feel safe in their own home,” said Jade Easley, a plaintiff and U.S. Army veteran who was a tenant at Blue Butterfly until March 2026.
“Blue Butterfly Village was built as a promise to homeless veterans and survivors of violence that they would finally have a safe, decent place to live. Our clients served their country and then needed help, and they were failed by the defendants in this case,” said Alisa Randell, an attorney with Public Counsel, co-counsel for plaintiffs. “This lawsuit is about accountability: real repairs, real services, and an end to the retaliation against tenants who spoke up.”
“This isn’t a case about problems the owners and management didn’t know about,” said Josh Nuni, an attorney with The People’s Law Project: Los Angeles who has filed suit against other supportive housing providers in the city. “The City and HACLA cited Blue Butterfly numerous times, and these defendants were content to let their tenants live in with rats and broken appliances anyway. That’s a choice. From a nonprofit with a mission to help vulnerable veterans, that choice is particularly egregious.”
The complaint that has initiated the lawsuit includes thirteen causes of action, including tortious breach of the warranty of habitability, breach of regulatory agreements governing the property, negligence, nuisance, intentional infliction of emotional distress, violation of the City of Los Angeles’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, retaliation under California Civil Code section 1942.5, and constructive eviction. The tenant plaintiffs are seeking damages, statutory penalties, injunctive relief requiring defendants to make repairs and restore services, and attorney’s fees.
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