Appeals court halts construction of homeless veteran housing ordered by federal judge
The shelter units, which would protect more than 100 vets from living on the streets this winter, will not be developed until after an April 2025 appeal is heard — if at all.
A federal appeals court has issued a stay while the government appeals Judge David O. Carter’s October order for the VA to provide thousands of permanent and temporary housing units for disabled and homeless veterans on the department’s West Los Angeles campus.
The brief opinion, issued Monday night by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit, did not detail the jurists’ reasoning, referring instead to boilerplate legal standards for a stay, which includes appellants making a strong showing that their case could succeed. The court also issued an expedited appeal schedule and set a hearing on the appeal for April 2025.
The decision halts a 106-unit modular housing community that Carter and veterans’ experts had raced to put in place by February — before the brunt of LA’s rainy season — and delayed planning for thousands of permanent apartments on the 388-acre property, which was deeded to the federal government in 1888 as a home for old soldiers.
Long Lead has been reporting from Powers v. McDonough every day court has been in session, and we will continue to follow this issue in this newsletter. Subscribe here to get updates sent direct to your inbox as soon as they publish:
“For the 3,000 homeless veterans on the streets of Los Angeles, the homeless veterans’ capital of the nation, where about one in 10 homeless veterans are, it means their lives will only deteriorate,” veterans’ attorney Mark Rosenbaum of Public Counsel said in a written statement. “And many will die.”
The VA did not respond to requests for comment prior to the publication deadline.
The government had argued Carter’s order would upset the VA’s “balanced housing strategy” and detract from services for all veterans. In 2015, the VA had agreed to build 1,200 new permanent supportive housing units on the campus as a part of a settlement of a previous lawsuit Valentini v. Shinseki. Nearly a decade and several missed deadlines later, only 307 apartments have opened on the extensive property, which abuts Brentwood, one of LA’s toniest neighborhoods.
The ruling was decided by Circuit Judges Sidney R. Thomas, Jay S. Bybee, and Daniel P. Collins.
Powers v. McDonough will continue at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The opening briefs for the appeal are due January 17.
Get the whole story: An epic government scandal hiding in plain sight
Home of the Brave is a multi-part, multimedia series exploring the unhoused veteran crisis at the West LA VA campus, a 388-acre property that was deeded to the U.S. government to provide veterans housing. Over the last 50 years, that land has been carved up and leased to private interests, while development for veteran housing has been painfully slow.
This newsletter reports how veterans are fighting to reclaim the land in a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs. The feature tells the rest of the story — a land grab dating back to the U.S. Civil War, bursting with government malfeasance, neglect, graft, and even death. Read it today.
Is there an issue with zoning there? Like some kind of height limit?