VA Must Build More Housing on West LA Campus, UCLA and Brentwood School Leases Illegal, Judge Rules

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 homes for low-income veterans at its West Los Angeles campus.

In a 124-page decision after a nonjury trial, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also ruled that the leases to UCLA, the Brentwood School and others on VA property are illegal because they do not primarily serve veterans.

UCLA’s Jackie Robinson baseball stadium sits on 10 acres leased from the VA, as does the Brentwood School’s 22-acre athletic facility.

Carter blasted the VA for abusing its mission to use the 388-acre campus to “primarily benefit veterans and their families.”

“Over the past five decades, the West LA VA has been infected with corruption, bribery, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and has been allowed by a major educational institution to exclude veterans’ voices on their own turf,” he wrote.

Carter wrote that the VA effectively sold the land, allowing leaseholders to build concrete facilities on it and then arguing that demolishing those facilities would be a waste.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs must address its mismanagement of this resource so that the land can once again be available for its intended use: veterans housing,” Carter wrote.

Carter’s order requires the VA to build 750 temporary housing units within 12 to 18 months and develop a plan within six months to add an additional 1,800 permanent housing units to the approximately 1,200 units already under planning and construction under the terms of a settlement of an earlier lawsuit.

Carter also ordered the VA to increase its outreach staff and increase the number of referrals it makes to local housing authorities to qualify veterans for housing subsidies.

It also calls on the VA to begin construction of a town center, including amenities such as a cafe and general store, on the property within 18 months.

The decision did not specify what should happen to the leases the VA has with UCLA, the Brentwood School and others, but said the “court will determine an exit strategy” after further hearings.

The U.S. Justice Department, which represented the VA in the lawsuit, declined to comment.

In his closing statements at trial, Justice Department attorney Brad Rosenberg argued that the VA has made progress in ending veteran homelessness and that the judge’s proposal to house more veterans on campus would be financially burdensome and would fundamentally change how the VA houses homeless veterans.

“The plaintiffs want to move scarce VA resources to a single location to house people with significant needs,” he said. “Whether or not the court thinks this is a good idea, we think it’s a bad idea.”

The Justice Department declined to comment further. UCLA and the Brentwood School did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The three-week trial in downtown federal court revived a dispute that dated back to 2011 that challenged the leases and argued an unmet need for veterans’ housing. In the earlier case, a federal judge ruled that several leases were illegal. Under West Los Angeles’ 2016 rental law, some were terminated and others renewed.

Subsequently, the VA inspector general found that the leases for the Brentwood school, as well as land containing oil wells and parking lots, did not comply with the law’s requirement that the leases “primarily benefit veterans and their families.”

The VA refused and kept the leases. A Brentwood official testified at the recent trial that the school paid $850,000 a year in rent to the VA and provided more than $900,000 in “in-kind” services, including meals for veterans and shuttle service for them to use the campus.

In a 2015 agreement, the VA agreed to develop a master plan for the campus. A draft plan, completed in 2016, called for 1,200 housing units in new and rehabilitated buildings, with a commitment to complete more than 770 units by the end of 2022. Only 54 of those units were completed by the deadline, and only 233 are currently open.

“Since 2011, the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have all promised to act swiftly to eradicate veteran homelessness in the United States,” Carter wrote in his decision issued Friday. “Yet today, approximately 3,000 homeless veterans live in the Los Angeles area alone.”

Acknowledging the plaintiffs’ argument that a lack of enforcement had allowed the breaches to occur, Carter said he would appoint a judicial monitor to ensure the terms of his decision were complied with.

In a rebuke of the VA’s practice of contracting with developers whose use of cumbersome tax credits has delayed housing construction, Carter ordered the VA “to use the most efficient, affordable and timely conventional financing for its housing projects.”

The decision follows testimony in which the plaintiffs recounted the story of Veterans Row — the cluster of tents that sprang up along San Vicente Boulevard just outside the VA grounds during the pandemic.

Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran who did not live on Veterans Row but became an advocate for veterans who did, testified to the misery, despair and death, as well as the neglect of VA staff who never stepped outside the fence to offer help.

Reynolds traced the evolution of the VA’s response to Veterans Row, from initial neglect to a plan to move veterans inside a puppy tent village to their current housing in tiny 8-by-8-foot homes, which he described as “the boxes they live in.” He attributed the VA’s increased attention to media coverage.

On Friday, Reynolds said he was grateful for the decision.

“I always thought that if this case went before a judge, he would see what we’ve all seen for years,” Reynolds said. “The facts are indisputable. I think this is a great start to ending veteran homelessness and returning this property to its original purpose, which was a home for soldiers.”