A California appeals court judge expressed concern Tuesday that a ruling ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs to build housing for homeless veterans on the grounds of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center would be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, during oral arguments, Judge Consuelo Callahan, the presiding judge on a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, said “it’s hard to say the VA has done a good job” of meeting the needs of the estimated 3,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles.
The appeals hearing was the latest in a legal battle between veterans and the VA on whether the campus in LA will be cleared of tenants and used to build housing for the homeless. The VA is appealing a judge’s ruling last year that it must construct 1,800 units of permanent housing for disabled and homeless veterans on the 388-acre grounds.
Callahan noted that the 1888 deed for the West LA VAMC land called for its use to be solely for the “benefit of veterans and their families,” and added that “I struggle with how some of the things that the VA did benefited veterans at all.”