"Veterans don’t trust you." Judge rebukes VA for breaking its promise to pay for homeless veteran housing
The VA had also barred consultants from the campus, but Judge Carter ordered the department to allow them back on the land to prepare sites for housing — adding he'd accompany them, if necessary.
An irate federal judge castigated VA officials in court Thursday, accusing them of going back on their promise to pay for emergency modular housing on the West Los Angeles campus to shelter homeless veterans before potentially deadly rains come.
After cooperating in a month of intensive research and planning for the 106-unit project, the VA filed to appeal U.S. District Judge David O. Carter’s order to build thousands of permanent and temporary units, including the modular units. The VA later filed for a stay to put the judge’s orders on ice while the appeal unspools. Last week, officials barred veterans’ consultants from entering the 388-acre campus to work on site preparations.
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:
VA attorney Cody Knapp said the agency would suffer “irreparable harm” if forced to foot the estimated $15 million modular housing bill, incensing the judge.
“You really don’t want the federal court involved, that’s the bottom line,” Carter shot back. He accused the agency of signing a secretive “sweetheart deal” in 2016 to extend UCLA’s baseball stadium lease on campus land, and told officials “the veterans don’t trust you.”
“I’m asking you to keep your word and fund these modulars,” the judge said. He ordered the VA to let the consultants on campus, adding he would accompany them if necessary to ensure they were admitted.
Carter made it clear he didn’t blame VA employees in the courtroom for what he called “going back on their word,” but rather higher-ups in Washington, D.C. “You hide behind the VA, DOJ and we never get a name,” Carter said. “We never have anybody responsible for these decisions in the courtroom.”
He demanded, however, that local VA employees “make that phone call” to persuade the VA to change its position.
Jonathan Sandler, attorney for the Brentwood School, also told Carter the VA’s appeal had left it without a valid lease for its athletic facilities, casting doubt on a $5 million preliminary settlement it had reached with veterans to use its gym, pool, and weight room more than half the time. Carter said he was leaning against Brentwood School’s request to intervene in the VA’s stay request to protect its interest but would decide at a hearing Nov. 13, after the site visit.
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 of a land grab dating back to the U.S. Civil War, a tale marked with government malfeasance, neglect, graft, and even death. Read it today.
Also Thursday, Carter and veterans lawyers discussed possible sites for the rest of the 1,800 permanent and 750 temporary units the judge ordered in his September judgment. Carter said he believed the back wall of UCLA’s baseball stadium could come down without much expense so temporary housing could be built on the baseball field, linking the two modular locations to form more community.
Carter mentioned that veteran suicides were rising, and said the real way veterans heal is by talking to other veterans about their combat experience. “We can’t just have a housing project, it has to have community amenities to recreate and relax,” said former LA County mental health director Jonathan Sherin, another plaintiff’s consultant, in agreement with Carter.
Other housing locations in play include the dog park and baseball fields by the Barrington Village parking lot. “That dog park is ridiculously large,” Carter said.
The judge asked if any environmental issues were lurking with the sites. VA planning official Chelsea Black told the judge the VA was finalizing a site closure monitoring plan to mitigate methane and possible medical waste in an old campus landfill on the campus.
The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 13.
I think all your readers would love to know who is on the VA's advisory and/or oversight committee(s) to see if there's a connection to wealthy real estate interests. With property this valuable (worth in the billions) I would think there are developers salivating at the idea of being able to exploit those 400 acres. And before anyone says "that could never happen," I suggest you thumb through Kevin Starr's history of California and Dennis MacDougal's book on the history of The Los Angeles Times. Lastly, as the Santa Monica Airport is converted (into who knows what), let's see if the originally promised amount of green space shrinks to the size of 8 pickle ball courts with the rest of it developed (good luck Ocean Park homeowners with your future traffic nightmares).