Full court declines to reconsider ruling requiring VA to build thousands of units of supportive housing on the West LA campus.
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LOS ANGELES, September 11, 2026—The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today denied the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ petition for rehearing en banc in Powers v. McDonough, letting stand the court’s landmark December 2025 ruling ordering the VA to build thousands of units of supportive housing for homeless, disabled veterans on its West Los Angeles campus. The three-judge panel unanimously voted to deny the VA’s petition.
Critically, the court’s order states that no further petitions for rehearing will be considered — closing the door on further delay at the circuit court level and clearing the way for enforcing the VA’s obligations under the ruling.
The underlying ruling requires the VA to:
- Build 750 units of temporary supportive housing within 18 months
- Build 1,800 units of permanent supportive housing within six years
- End the discriminatory use of income restrictions by ensuring veterans’ disability payments do not count against their eligibility for supportive housing
Public Counsel has led this fight from the outset. The firm built the successful case that the VA’s failure to house disabled veterans on its own West LA campus violated the law. Their work continues a decades-long history of Public Counsel litigation aimed at holding the VA accountable for housing and services on the West LA campus, one of the largest pieces of federal land ever set aside for veterans’ care.
“It’s an historic day for all veterans and for the nation,” said Mark Rosenbaum, Senior Special Counsel for Strategic Litigation at Public Counsel. “The denial of the government’s petition for rehearing will hopefully put an end to the government’s war against the men and women who sacrificed for the country and came back from their service only to find that their government had deserted them in their time of need. And the denial of the petition should end the disgrace of veteran homelessness once and for all. It’s long past time to heal the visible and invisible wounds of war for the brave soldiers who won this case.”
“On a day when we remember the sacrifices so many Americans made in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it is deeply significant that the courts have made clear that housing must be built for veterans who are still living homeless on our streets while carrying the wounds of war,” said Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran and advocate. “Twenty-five years later to the day, this ruling is a reminder that the country’s obligation to those who served does not end when the war does. The West Los Angeles VA has been mismanaged for decades, and court oversight is necessary to ensure the VA finally follows through on its obligations to our veterans. My hope is that the VA does not appeal this case to the Supreme Court, because any further appeal would only delay the oversight needed to ensure that happens.”
Co-counsel Robins Kaplan, Sidley Austin, Brown Goldstein & Levy, and Inner City Law Center have also represented the veteran plaintiffs throughout the case.
Public Counsel will continue to monitor the VA’s compliance and keep pressing to ensure the court’s mandate is met with the urgency this moment demands.
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