A congressional subcommittee on Tuesday ripped into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for issuing commercial leases on its sprawling West Los Angeles campus while thousands of homeless veterans slept in the streets.
“It’s an atrocity,” said Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.). “The vets are sleeping outside in the cold, while the VA has to correct many, many years of wrongs.”
The hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations focused on a scathing report in September from the Government Accountability Office, which found that the VA had failed to collect rent from commercial leaseholders at its 387-acre West Los Angeles campus. At least one leaseholder is being investigated criminally, officials said.
A federal judge in 2013 struck down the leases, saying they had nothing to do with medical care for veterans.
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