Veterans Affairs Criticized for Illegal Land Deals and Lack of Housing for Homeless Disabled Veterans in Los Angeles.
A federal judge in California recently ruled that the federal Veteran Affairs agency routinely failed to provide housing and adequate medical care for homeless veterans with disabilities.
Judge David O. Carter, a District Judge for California’s Central District Court, wrote in a 125-page opinion that the agency “turn[ed] its back” on the veterans it is supposed to help. Instead, the agency illegally leased portions of its West Los Angeles campus to a private school, UCLA’s basketball team, an oil company, “and other private interests,” according to the document.
“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,” Carter wrote. “It is time for the disabled veterans of Los Angeles to come home.”
The opinion was in response to a 2022 lawsuit called Powers v. McDonough, a class-action lawsuit filed by 14 homeless veterans and The National Veterans Foundation. The lawsuit sought to force the VA to provide adequate supportive housing options for the nearly 3,000 homeless veterans in the city of Los Angeles area who could qualify for its services. It also sought to prevent the agency from entering into housing agreements that don’t “primarily benefit veterans.”
In 2022, VA Secretary Dennis McDonough also released a Master Plan calling for at least 1,200 supportive housing units on the West LA campus by 2030. However, only 233 completed housing units are on the campus today, and all of them are filled. Moreover, Carter found that very few of these units were being leased to homeless veterans with disabilities.
Veterans Face Barriers to Housing and Healthcare at VA Facilities
Homeless veterans who were lucky enough to be placed into a supportive housing unit also faced challenges accessing medical care, according to Carter’s ruling. That’s because the VA often placed homeless veterans with disabilities in units that were outside of the campus’ core. Doing so increased the distance they needed to travel to receive care, which can be burdensome for people suffering from traumatic brain injuries, schizophrenia, and serious mental illness, Carter wrote.
According to Carter’s opinion, the VA also entered into land use agreements that routinely failed to tangibly benefit veterans. For instance, the agency leased part of its 388-acre campus to Brentwood School, a private coed K-12 day school, which the judge ruled was illegal in a similar 2011 lawsuit.
“After years of broken promises, corruption, and neglect, it is no surprise that veterans are unwilling to take them at their word,” Carter wrote.
Carter’s opinion also granted some significant victories to the homeless veterans with disabilities who filed the lawsuit. The Court’s order requires the VA to construct an additional 1,800 permanent housing units on or near the West LA campus by 2030. That is in addition to the 1,200 units the agency already promised to build.
The order also requires the VA to end its use of income restrictions for its affordable housing units. The agency must also increase staffing and improve the effectiveness of its housing voucher and street outreach programs.
“The term ‘veteran homelessness’ should not be in the American vocabulary,” said Mark Rosenbaum, senior special counsel at Public Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm representing the plaintiffs.
Veteran Homelessness Rises Despite Federal Efforts
The ruling was issued at a time when veteran homelessness is increasing both in California and across the U.S. Federal snapshot data shows that there were more than 35,000 homeless veterans across the U.S. in 2023, which was an increase of more than 2,000 veterans year-over-year.
California is home to more than 10,500 homeless veterans as well, a population that grew by about 600 people over the last year, according to federal data.
“This nation cannot genuinely hold itself out as the home of the brave, so long as the brave have no home,” Rosenbaum said.
Pandemic-Era Programs Offer Path to Preventing Homelessness
The pandemic proved that we need to rethink housing in the United States. It also showed that aid programs work when agencies and service organizations have sufficient funds and clear guidance on spending aid dollars.
Contact your officials and representatives. Tell them you support keeping many of the pandemic-related aid programs in place for future use. They have proven effective at keeping people housed, which is the first step to ending homelessness.