A Los Angeles federal judge Wednesday will hear from UCLA and other entities whose longtime leases for portions of the VA’s West Los Angeles campus were canceled after its was determined the grounds should only be used for the benefit of military veterans.
In a strongly worded ruling issued earlier this month, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter blasted the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for “turning its back” on the veterans it was designed to help by illegally leasing portions of the campus to a private school, UCLA’s baseball team, an oil company, and other private interests on the agency’s West Los Angeles campus.
The judge ordered the leases terminated.
Carter’s findings came following a monthlong non-jury trial of a lawsuit lodged in Los Angeles federal court against the VA by a group of unhoused veterans with disabilities, challenging land lease agreements and seeking housing on the campus for veterans in need, many of whom are homeless or must travel for hours to see their doctors.
Over the past five decades, Carter wrote, the VA in West L.A. “has been infected by bribery, corruption, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans’ input about their own lands.”
During trial, the VA argued that it is out of space on its 388-acre campus, and that the lack of available acreage precludes any increase to the 1,200 housing units the agency promised to open by 2030. VA attorneys alleged that any relief ordered by the court would burden the department financially and deprive it of the flexibility needed to solve veteran homelessness.
Ultimately, the court found that veterans are entitled to more than 2,500 units of housing at the campus “and termination of the illegal land-use agreements.”
It was not immediately clear what would become of the outside organizations’ leases on the campus, including UCLA’s Jackie Robinson baseball stadium and the affluent Brentwood School’s athletic complex on prime West Los Angeles real estate deeded to veterans. Leases were also awarded to an oil driller and a parking lot operator whose lots chiefly benefit Brentwood merchants, court papers show.
Carter said the court would begin to determine an “exit strategy” for the lease holders at the hearing Wednesday in order to ensure the land — including 10 acres rented to UCLA — is put to a use that principally benefits veterans.
According to Carter, roughly 3,000 homeless veterans live in the Los Angeles area alone — and each administration since 2011 has been warned — by the VA’s own Office of the Inspector General, federal courts, and veterans themselves — that the department was not doing enough to house them.
The judge’s ruling orders the VA to build 750 units of temporary housing within 18 months and to form a plan within six months to add another 1,800 units of permanent housing to the roughly 1,200 units already in planning and construction under the settlement terms of an earlier lawsuit.
Carter, himself a Vietnam War veteran, found that the VA “has allowed the drastic reduction of the size of the original plot of land deeded in 1888 to be an old soldiers’ home. In a series of lengthy, renewable leases, the VA authorized leaseholders to build permanent athletic facilities — after permitting these concrete structures to be built on veterans’ land.”
The judge held that for years the VA — budgeted at $407 billion annually — has “quietly sold off” land badly needed for injured and homeless military veterans.
VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement to City News Service that the agency “will continue to do everything in our power to end veteran homelessness — both in Los Angeles and across America. No veteran should be homeless in this country they swore to defend, and we will not rest until veteran homelessness is a thing of the past.”
Hayes did not comment on the judge’s findings regarding the leaseholders.
A UCLA representative said that the university and the VA have had a “longstanding public service partnership” over more than 70 years.
“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,” according to UCLA. “We are reviewing the judge’s decision to determine how it will affect our partnership with the VA.”
In a statement, the Brentwood School maintained that its lease with the VA “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.”