Homeless vets sued the VA and won

[d_marsh]

Homeless vets sued the VA and won. Now the government has to build thousands of homes.​

A federal judge ruled that current leases for oil drilling and schools on the nearly 400-acre site are illegal and must end.

Nicholas Slayton
Posted on Sep 7, 2024 4:26 PM EDT

Judge David O. Carter inspects the West L.A. VA campus on Aug. 21, 2024, while overseeing a lawsuit against the VA brought by veterans. Getty Photo via Los Angeles Times by Brian van der Brug
A federal judge ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to immediately develop a plan to build nearly 2,000 new supportive housing units for veterans on its 388-acre campus in West Los Angeles.
Judge David O. Carter’s ruling on Friday, Sept. 6, was a major victory for a group of veterans who sued the VA over the use, or lack thereof, of the massive campus. They sued over a number of different aspects of how the VA utilizes the space, which was gifted to it in 1888. The plaintiffs, many of whom are experiencing homelessness themselves, argued that the VA was not building enough housing on the available space, while the VA fought back, saying it was building enough under a previous agreement and leasing out other parcels on the campus was providing revenue for services.

Judge Carter disagreed with the VA. He ordered the VA to build 750 temporary housing units in the next 12-18 months to provide immediate shelter. Additionally, Carter requires that the department construct 1,800 more permanent housing units on the VA campus. The decision came after a three-week non jury trial.

“Each administration since 2011 has been warned — by the VA’s own Office of the Inspector General, federal courts, and veterans — that they were not doing enough to house veterans in Los Angeles,” Carter wrote in his decision. “Despite these warnings, the VA has not made good on its promise to build housing for veterans.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs previously agreed to a master plan to build 1,200 new housing units, the result of a previous lawsuit, but only 233 are open now. The decision in this new suit gives the VA six months to develop a new plan for the additional 1,800 units and a town center for veterans living on the campus. The VA’s plan must have all of the new housing and supportive facilities finished and open within six years.
More than 3,000 veterans are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, out of 75,312 total unhoused people, according to the county’s annual point-in-time count. The majority are unsheltered. The City and County of Los Angeles, working with private developers, are currently building several permanent supportive housing projects, separate from any effort the federal government is making in West Los Angeles.
Carter also ruled in his decision that current leases of campus space to entities including the University of California, Los Angeles and oil drillers are illegal. The leases for the oil drilling and a parking lot were immediately voided. The exact exit strategy for those spaces currently being used by UCLA and the Brentwood School will be determined in later hearings.

The ruling comes after earlier partial decisions by Carter. In May he said that the VA’s policy of counting disability compensation towards income — which as a result pushes many homeless veterans out of eligibility for federal housing assistance — was discriminatory. Last month the VA and HUD announced it was doing away with that policy. In his ruling, Carter noted that the two federal departments pointed to the new policy changes as a sign that they were making improvements, but said those only happened after the lawsuit went forward.
“Now, the West LA 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,” Carter wrote. “After years of broken promises, corruption, and neglect, it is no surprise that veterans are unwilling to take them at their word.”

The 80-year-old judge — himself a veteran who served during the Vietnam War — took lawyers and members of the press on a hike around the large campus on Aug. 21, personally inspecting the site.

The campus previously had been lined by tent encampments, predominantly belong to veterans. “Veterans Row” was cleared in 2021, partly with the promise from the VA to provide shelter and housing inside the 388-acre site. Some temporary tiny home shelters were put up, but they have been plagued by issues and are not permanent housing. Other veterans were simply displaced, moving to other parts of the city.


https://taskandpurpose.com/news/va-judge-carter-los-angeles-veterans-homeless/

 

[old tex]

I'll start with the fact that I have a lot of dealings with the VA because of my step father. All of those dealings have been very positive. What the VA does for him is right up there with what the military does for me & he served 2 years & I served 20 years. Now I'll point out something. When your active duty you get promised certain things. Veterans were never promised housing. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, just that they were never promised it. On the other hand I was in during the period that we were promised free medical care for life. Congress voted that "right, or promise" away years ago. We now have to pay a fee for our "free" medical care. And in case you don't know having medical privileges from the military does NOT mean that you can get treated at the VA. I can't be seen at the VA but my wife, who was medically rated as disabled by the VA can be seen there. Two totally different systems.

 

[rice paddy daddy]

I’m a veteran who believes that a substantial portion of homeless vets are that way because of substance abuse.

I know, I became homeless that way.
But I took action to help myself including therapy for PTSD and abstinence from all mind altering substances with the help of AA.
In fact I even refused the VA offer to drug me for PTSD. I saw how it made my buddies into zombies. That was the VA approach in tge 1980’s - drug us into submission.

I’m all for the VA building or buying housing for homeless vets, with the proviso that they remain drug and alcohol free. And enforce it with testing.

I get a lot of crap from do gooders at VFW and American Legion for my stance on homelessness.

 

[Snowman]

I Hope that what happens in West LA, Shakes up the Country from Cali to Maine, Wash St. to Florida... It's long past Due...!!!

 

[Snowman]

The sidewalk on San Vicente Boulevard the day after the Veterans Row homeless camp was cleared.
^^^ Hosted by Anna Scott Mar. 29, 2023

V - Hosted by Anna Scott Feb. 15, 2023

 

[Snowman]

After a year and a half on the street, the Veterans Row homeless camp is dismantled by sanitation crews. But for many of the veterans who lived there, it’s more of a beginning than an end. So, what’s next?


And what was it all for? Most of the veterans still don’t have what they’ve wanted all along — permanent housing on the massive West LA VA campus. Still, more progress is being made there than ever before, leaving room for hope.

 

[Snowman]

A building is under renovation at the VA campus in West LA, which is at the center of a new lawsuit filed against the federal government by homeless veterans in LA. The VA was supposed to have finished more than 700 apartments there by now, but has opened just 54.

By Anna Scott Nov. 16, 2022 ^^^

"The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was hit with a civil rights lawsuit late Tuesday by homeless veterans in Los Angeles and their advocates. The plaintiffs are accusing the agency of misusing a huge VA campus in West LA and breaking a promise to build 1,200 affordable apartments there. Instead, the complaint says, the VA routinely pushes the region’s neediest veterans into temporary shelters, psychiatric facilities, and jails — depriving them of housing and health care benefits.


The 14 veterans behind the suit, who are all unhoused and all suffer from serious mental or physical disabilities, are asking a federal court to force the VA to improve housing access for disabled veterans on and near the VA’s 388-acre West Los Angeles medical campus. They also want to ban the VA from entering lease agreements on that campus — which was donated to the government specifically to house veterans — with outside renters that have nothing to do with veteran care. The National Veterans Federation, an advocacy organization, is also a plaintiff.


The case is essentially a do-over of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2011 on behalf of a different group of homeless veterans. The public interest attorney behind both suits, Mark Rosenbaum, says he regrets resolving the first case with a good faith agreement for the VA to build housing on its West LA campus. Seven years later, the VA has completed only a tiny fraction of what it promised. The only recourse, Rosenbaum says, is to sue again."



Hope They are with "GOD Speed"...!!!