Reaction: Vets, VA, UCLA, and Brentwood School comment on the Powers v. McDonough judgment
Reaction: Vets, VA, UCLA, and Brentwood School comment on the Powers v. McDonough judgment
“As far as I'm concerned, the leases are illegal and these people have to go,” said Jeffrey Powers, the class action lawsuit's named plaintiff.
“Today is the first real Veterans Day in America in a long, long time,” Mark Rosenbaum, plaintiffs counsel in the Powers v. McDonough lawsuit, said Friday at a press conference held hours after Judge David O. Carter posted his opinion on the case.
In his ruling, Carter sharply criticized the VA for its failures of homeless veterans, ordered the department to build (and plan to construct) thousands of housing units on the campus, and effectively terminated the VA’s leases with UCLA, the Brentwood School, and other organizations.
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Rosenbaum, standing behind a podium at the Public Counsel offices in Los Angeles called Carter a “wise and caring jurist” but said the victory was won “not by lawyers” but by veterans themselves including some, like Jeffrey Powers and Rob Reynolds, who were seated at his side.
“These veterans… they have fought valiantly for their battle buddies, the 3,000 unhoused veterans in Los Angeles, and on behalf of the spirits of those veterans who perished on the streets going all the way back to Vietnam,” Rosenbaum said.
“This ruling not only provides permanent housing, but also temporary housing and that’s very important because what they have there now is not really meeting the needs of veterans,” Powers, the lead plaintiff in the suit, said, speaking softly into the microphones laid out in front of him.
He described the current temporary housing as “tool sheds.”
“Nobody should have to live in something like that,” he said.
The VA, for its part, declined to comment on the ruling citing “ongoing litigation.”
“We at VA are carefully reviewing the Court’s decision and will continue to do everything in our power to end Veteran homelessness — both in Los Angeles and across America,” the department said in a statement to Long Lead.
VA’s statement also included highlights of the department’s attempts to address the unhoused veteran crisis, including a decrease in the homeless veteran population since 2023 in Los Angeles and investments in on-campus housing.
Regarding the possibility of an appeal, plaintiff’s attorney Roman Silberman said, “We'll have to wait and see what the government wants to do.”
“As Mark said, I would implore the senior leadership of the VA to reach out to us and try to solve this problem short of an appeal,” he said.
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The plaintiffs and the defense are due back in court on Sept. 25 to begin to iron out the details of the order.
“My hope is that when we go into court on September 25 the VA will say, ‘Your Honor, the fight against our veterans is over,’” Rosenbaum said. “‘The fight against veterans seeking to secure housing for themselves and their battle buddies is over. We will do what this court says, and we will do it even more promptly.’”
“And if they don't, we're going to enforce that order,” Rosenbaum added.
“As the judge noted, VA leadership has not taken this case for their obligations seriously, and I fear they will continue to try to sidestep their obligations, but we won't back down,” said attorney Eve Hill, who appeared at the conference via video call.
Reynolds said he was “thankful” for the ruling and its attempt to address the VA’s illegal leases with UCLA, the Brentwood School, and other organizations.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that has happened, and today marks the first step towards a long road and getting that land back to its intended purpose as a soldier's home for disabled veterans,” he said.
In a statement to Long Lead, the Brentwood School contended that its lease “complies with federal law, according to the 2016 West LA Leasing Act.”
“While we are still examining the full implications of the ruling, it would be a significant loss for many Veterans if the extensive services we provide were eliminated,” the school said.
UCLA also stated that it was “reviewing the judge’s decision to determine how it will affect our partnership with the VA.”
“Working with the VA to serve Veterans continues to be one of our key objectives as part of UCLA’s mission of teaching, research and public service,” the school said.
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Silberman acknowledged that next steps regarding the leased land, particularly the parcels occupied by UCLA and the Brentwood School, are still being worked out.
“(There) sometimes seems to be a tendency to feel sorry for these people,” Powers said regarding the leases. “But if you go back and look at what happened to these leases, there's a lot of lies and deceit and stuff like that.”
“As far as I'm concerned, the leases are illegal and these people have to go,” Powers said, stopping short of calling for the facilities to be razed. Instead he offered that they be “repurposed.”
“I’m amazed that this came down,” said Shad Meshad, president of the National Veterans Foundation, who has been working with veterans for more than 50 years.
“Mark Rosenbaum and his group have just brought reality into the face of the leadership of one of the largest VAs in the country — and it’s succeeded,” Meshad said.
David Echevarria, an Army veteran and advocate said the decision was “one full step, maybe two full steps in the right direction.”
“It only tells us, essentially, that we were right,” he said.
Joe Ramirez, commander and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Palisade American Legion, praised the efforts and “sticktoitiveness” of the legal team and plaintiffs and highlighted Reynolds' commitment to helping veterans.
Amanda Mangaser Savage, an attorney for Public Counsel, said being able to represent the veterans was “the honor of my life, and I know the honor of many of my colleagues’ lives.”
“I stand in awe of the veterans who served in this case, their dedication to justice, which is what allowed them to endure, truly, years of litigation,” she added.
Mangaser Savage also noted that the ruling not only addresses housing, but “also recognizes that the system is riddled with errors and is not designed to serve the veterans that the VA purports to serve.”
“There isn't another place on the planet, other than the United States, where a group of people, who are essentially powerless, can take on their government and obtain a result of this magnitude,” said attorney Roman Silberfeld. “Only here can that happen, and only here has that happened in the context of this case and in the ruling that we got from the court today.”
An injunctive relief hearing for Powers v. McDonough is scheduled for Wednesday, September 25.
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It seems to be a bit sticky as the VA signed the releases with the private entities. How long is the lease for?