Today launched what promises to be a massive legal battle regarding the future of a 388-acre campus in Los Angeles owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is a non-jury trial in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge David O. Carter that may decide whether the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus is covered with thousands of housing units for veterans.
Central to the litigation brought forward by the homeless veterans of the Los Angeles area are arguments about how land ought to be used. The plaintiffs, in this lawsuit, seek 4,000 supportive housing units and 1,000 temporary shelter beds. The federal government claims that it is already building enough housing and that complying with the lawsuit would be an undue burden on the VA.
Judge Carter has ruled that the VA is discriminating against veterans through a partial summary judgment issued in May, which disqualifies them from housing on the campus. He has said that the various disability payments received by many veterans push their income above the VA threshold for eligibility for housing.
The lawsuit has since mushroomed into a class action case, and the trial is not expected to end until at least August. Under a master plan spawned by a 2015 settlement in the earlier case, the VA was supposed to build 1,215 new housing units, but it has completed only 233.
At the center of the legal claim is the alleged misuse of the 388-acre facility, which was given over to the federal government back in 1888 to provide dwellings for U.S. military veterans. Over several decades of its existence, the facility transformed from housing to primarily being a medical installation.
US District Judge James P. Carter previously found that the VA’s leasing of parts of the property for parking lots, athletic fields, and other uses violated the terms of the original 1888 deed. Those earlier rulings here did not address how much new housing must be built.
A 2024 point-in-time homeless count identified 75,312 individuals as experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County. Among those counted were 3,410 veterans, with 2,251 identified as unsheltered. HUD determined that 35,574 veterans were homeless on a single night in January 2023.
The federal government contends that adding more housing would have increased costs and delays, the need for an environmental impact report to determine any potential ecological damage, different developers, and other infrastructure improvements. The federal government also stated that leasing the land generates revenue that can be used to fund services for veterans.
The encampment surrounding the West LA VA campus, known as “Veterans Row,” was cleared in 2021. The veterans have been relocated to “tiny home” shelters at the campus but advocates said that doesn’t count as permanent housing and the shelters have been ravaged by floods and fires. They insist that expanded, permanent housing is essential.
With dozens of supportive housing projects funded by that 2016 voter-approved ballot measure, the total number of units will not be able to accommodate the increasing numbers of those experiencing homelessness in the region.
Carter is concurrently handling a related but separate broad case on homelessness filed against Los Angeles, state mental health, and Social Services agencies.
The ruling could have far-reaching implications nationwide because many projects in the country involve third-party developers using financing that specifically excludes veterans who receive disability compensation. He says the term “homeless veteran” should be an oxymoron and calls on the federal government to take meaningful action to end veteran homelessness.
Currently, when the VA outsources the construction of its facilities, the income eligibility requirements do not include many of the most disabled veterans, because that may require specialized housing. The plaintiffs’ main attorney, Mark Rosenbaum, had this to say: “This is a case of national significance because the VA elsewhere has followed the identical practice.
The trial will address the veterans’ demand for thousands of housing units beyond what the VA already provides and their contention that the VA has illegally leased portions of the campus for activities unrelated to veterans. The plaintiffs presented evidence that veterans were kept from moving into newly built or rehabbed housing because their disability income exceeded limits on who could be considered eligible to move in.
Judge Carter’s holding noted that the more benefits that a veteran receives in the form of a disability, there is likelihood of such a veteran to disqualified from any housing on campus. He held that “defendants cannot outsource discrimination.”
The lawsuit, filed in November, charges that the VA has breached an obligation to veterans by outsourcing work to developers which has made the process time-consuming and nearly impossible for some disabled veterans to navigate. The VA acknowledged that 504 units are already under construction and another 234 are in pre-development, but the plaintiffs called that insufficient.
The Veterans Collective is a consortium of housing developers and service providers hired by the VA regarding projects on the campus. The group supports the legislation that would reverse this policy of excluding veterans with disability compensation. Hopefully, the issue will not stop the work on the housing projects.
How this case proceeds might be the template for VA housing policy on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus and other VA campuses around the country.