A federal appeals court ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop housing for homeless, disabled veterans on a sprawling campus the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center is located. (Stars and Stripes)
A federal appeals court ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to finish a project for housing thousands of homeless veterans with severe disabilities who live in encampments and on the streets of Los Angeles.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif., ruled in a class-action lawsuit filed by advocates for veterans with severe disabilities against the VA to build housing on land leased to private businesses.
The subsidized housing will provide veterans with traumatic brain injuries, mental illness and severe physical handicaps direct access to the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which is located on the 388-acre campus, according to court documents.
A three-judge panel stated on Dec. 23 that the VA “had strayed from its mission.” The panel ruled that the VA must terminate commercial agreements with private businesses at the site to make room for subsidized housing for veterans.
The decision upholds a 2024 lower-court ruling ordering the agency to build permanent and temporary housing units on the campus.
The West Los Angeles VA property is located in Brentwood, one of the wealthiest communities in Los Angeles County, according to court documents.
“The medical center provides specialized and critical services that veterans in the greater Los Angeles area can only access at that facility,” according to court documents. The VA medical center includes a hospital, two nursing homes, doctors’ offices and an addiction treatment facility.
The VA is reviewing the court’s decision but in the meantime continues to implement an executive order by President Donald Trump to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence for Homeless Veterans on the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus, according to the agency. The proposed center aims to connect veterans with housing and other services.
After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the primary next step for appealing a decision is to petition the Supreme Court
The VA also must complete a 10-year-old plan for building 1,800 subsidized apartments and 750 units of temporary shelter at the site, according to the ruling.
“This opinion represents a comprehensive win for veterans and confirms and amplifies upon the district court’s indictment of the VA’s historic failed stewardship of the most needy veterans,” said attorney John Hueston, a court-appointed monitor in the case.
The federal government was bequeathed the property in 1888 by private owners requesting that it be used to build a retirement home for disabled veterans, according to court documents. The land should be used to “construct and maintain a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers,” according to court documents. Congress had established the National Homes for Volunteer Disabled Soldiers after the Civil War, a network of veterans facilities that were precursors of the VA today.
“This class action lawsuit, and its numerous appeals, demonstrates just how far the VA has strayed from its mission. There are now scores of unhoused veterans trying to survive in and around the greater Los Angeles area despite the acres of land deeded to the VA for their care,” Circuit Judge Ana de Alba wrote in the opinion.
“Rather than use the West Los Angeles VA Grounds as President Lincoln intended, the VA has leased the land to third party commercial interests that do little to benefit the veterans,” the judge wrote.
The VA’s agreements with private businesses at the site include a lease with the Brentwood School, which teaches students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.
The school rents land for a multimillion-dollar athletic complex that includes a stadium, outdoor fields and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
While veterans receive limited access to the swimming pool, the in-kind services Brentwood provided are not authorized by law, according to court documents.
The three-judge panel also ordered the termination of a licensing agreement with Bridgeland Resources, an oil-and-gas company.
“Bridgeland’s oil and gas production leases and subsurface rights are relevant because the company slant-drills for oil in wells that pass through the subsurface of the campus,” according to court documents.
Under the terms of the government’s licensing agreement, royalties for drilling rights were paid to the Los Angeles chapter of the Disabled American Veterans for drilling rights.
But the appeals court decision keeps in place a stadium lease with the University of California at Los Angeles. The lease with UCLA, a public institution owned by the state, was not fully addressed in the appeal, according to court documents.
The VA Office of Inspector General previously concluded that the agreements with private businesses did not primarily benefit veterans, as designated in the 1888 land transfer to the VA, according to court documents.
The property has been the subject of litigation against the VA and other federal agencies since 2011.
Attorneys for 10 disabled veterans claimed a lack of nearby affordable housing kept veterans from reasonably accessing care at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.
In the federal court ruling last week, the judges noted that the VA developed a master plan 10 years ago with a blueprint for phasing in large-scale housing for veterans by 2030. Several hundred units were subsequently developed.
The master plan demonstrated the VA was committed to making its “land-use agreements veteran-focused,” according to court documents.