Judge blasts VA, orders more housing for veterans on West LA campus

In a hard-hitting, sometimes-shocking ruling that blasts the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for "turning its back" on the disabled veterans it was designed to help, a federal judge today ordered additional permanent housing on the agency's West Los Angeles campus.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also determined that the department has been illegally leasing portions of the campus to a private school, UCLA's baseball team, an oil company, and other private interests -- and ordered those contracts terminated.

In the 125-page ruling, Carter wrote that the "cost of the VA's inaction is veterans' lives."

The judge's findings were issued Friday following a month-long trial of a lawsuit lodged in Los Angeles federal court against the VA by a group of unhoused veterans with disabilities, challenging land lease agreements and seeking housing on the campus for veterans in need, many of whom are homeless or must travel for hours to see their doctors.

Over the past five decades, Carter wrote, the VA in West L.A. "has been infected by bribery, corruption, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans' input about their own lands."

Carter, himself a Vietnam War veteran, found that the VA "has allowed the drastic reduction of the size of the original plot of land deeded in 1888 to be an Old Soldiers' Home. In a series of lengthy, renewable leases, the VA authorized leaseholders to build permanent athletic facilities -- after permitting these concrete structures to be built on veterans' land."

The judge held that for years the VA -- budgeted at $407 billion annually -- has "quietly sold off" land badly needed for injured and homeless military veterans.

VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement that the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation but is reviewing the judge's decision.

The VA "will continue to do everything in our power to end veteran homelessness -- both in Los Angeles and across America," Hayes said. "No veteran should be homeless in this country they swore to defend, and we will
not rest until veteran homelessness is a thing of the past."

He added, "VA is committed to providing permanent supportive housing to homeless veterans on the grounds of the West L.A. campus as quickly as possible. We will stop at nothing to end veteran homelessness, including through ensuring that critical funding and resources get into the hands of those who need it most. VA will continue to take every action and make every investment available to us to meet this critical goal."

During trial, the VA argued that it is out of space on its 388-acre campus, and that the lack of available acreage precludes any increase to the 1,200 housing units the agency promised to open by 2030. VA attorneys alleged that any relief ordered by the court would burden the department financially and deprive it of the flexibility needed to solve veteran homelessness.

"The problem, however, is one of the VA's own making," Carter wrote, adding that VA land in West L.A. must "once again be available for its intended purpose: the housing of veterans."

In a previous order, Carter determined that the VA had discriminated against "the most injured and traumatized veterans" by counting their disability payments as income and thus disqualifying them from housing on the campus.

"Now, the West L.A. VA promises they finally have a plan that will end veteran homelessness in Los Angeles -- but only if the plaintiffs leave them alone and the court does not issue an injunction," the judge wrote. "After years of broken promises, corruption, and neglect, it is no surprise that veterans are unwilling to take them at their word."

Ultimately, the court found that veterans are entitled to more than 2,500 units of housing at the campus "and termination of the illegal land-use agreements."

It was not immediately clear what would become of the outside organizations' leases on the campus, including UCLA's Jackie Robinson baseball stadium and the affluent Brentwood School's athletic complex on prime West Los Angeles real estate deeded to veterans. Leases were also awarded to an oil driller and a parking lot operator whose lots chiefly benefit Brentwood merchants, court papers show.

A UCLA representative said Friday that the university and the VA have had a "longstanding public service partnership" over more than 70 years.

"Working with the VA to serve veterans continues to be one of our key objectives as part of UCLA's mission of teaching, research and public service," according to UCLA. "We are reviewing the judge's decision to determine how it will affect our partnership with the VA."

In a statement, the Brentwood School maintained that its lease with the VA "complies with federal law, according to the 2016 West LA Leasing Act. While we are still examining the full implications of the ruling, it would be a significant loss for many veterans if the extensive services we provide were eliminated."

Carter said the court would begin to determine an "exit strategy" for the lease holders at a Sept. 25 hearing in order to ensure the land -- including 10 acres rented to UCLA -- is put to a use that principally benefits veterans.

According to Carter, roughly 3,000 homeless veterans live in the Los Angeles area alone -- and each administration since 2011 has been warned -- by the VA's own Office of the Inspector General, federal courts, and veterans themselves -- that the department was not doing enough to house them.

The judge's ruling Friday orders the VA to build 750 units of temporary housing within 18 months and to form a plan within six months to add another 1,800 units of permanent housing to the roughly 1,200 units already in planning and construction under the settlement terms of an earlier lawsuit.

Plaintiffs' attorney Mark Rosenbaum of Public Counsel, a Los Angeles-based public interest law firm, said Carter's ruling restores the land to its intended purpose, "to serve as a soldier's home ... not as a playground for UCLA baseball players and Brentwood high school students."

The VA's poor decisions left disabled veterans "unhoused on the meanest streets of Los Angeles when their government deserted them in their time of need," Rosenbaum said.

"This nation cannot genuinely hold itself out as the home of the brave so long as the brave have no home," he said.

Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran and longtime plaintiffs' advocate, added: "The judge saw what all of us have seen -- that the VA has willfully entered into illegal land use agreements ... on land that was intended to house our veterans. And as a result of that, thousands of veterans are sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles."

The West L.A. campus remains the chief health care facility for veterans in Southern California. The VA's Veterans Health Administration is required to provide preventive and primary care, acute hospital care, mental health services, specialty care, and long-term care, which includes residential treatment and housing services, the judge wrote.

Many of the lawsuit's plaintiffs -- particularly those military veterans with traumatic brain injuries and serious mental illness -- find it difficult to travel to the campus.

For example, according to the ruling, plaintiff Laurieann Wright, who lives with PTSD related to sexual assault she experienced during her military service, currently lives in VA-affiliated housing in Lancaster, about 65 miles away from the campus, but not by choice. Wright must commute up to three hours to access the West L.A. VA medical facilities.

"In addition to her PTSD, Ms. Wright has extensive physical disabilities and medical conditions including: osteoporosis, a neck injury she sustained after being thrown down the stairs while living on the sidewalk outside the VA," Carter said.

In sum, the judge wrote, by failing to provide sufficient permanent supportive housing for veterans on or near the West L.A. grounds, and failing to provide temporary housing in the interim while permanent housing is constructed, the VA "consistently denies veterans with serious mental illness and traumatic brain injury meaningful access to the community-based VA health care, mental health care, and other critical supportive services they need and for which they are eligible."

Carter wrote that both temporary and permanent housing units are critical in providing relief to the plaintiffs.

"Without temporary supportive housing, countless veterans may die on the streets or in shelters while waiting for permanent housing to be built,'' the judge said.

To conclude, Carter wrote that 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."