After years of legal fights and hearings, a major trial over what should be done with a massive plot of land owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles started today. The case, heard in a non-jury trial by a federal judge, could decide if thousands of housing units are built for veterans on the land.
The case, brought by Los Angeles-area veterans experiencing homelessness, covers a number of disputes over the use of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. The key matters is how much housing should be built on the land. Lawyers for the veterans wrote in a brief last month that they want to see a total of 4,000 supportive housing units built on the 388-acre land, as well as 1,000 temporary shelter beds. The federal government meanwhile argues that it is building plenty of housing and that the demands in the lawsuit place an undue burden on the VA.
In May, the federal judge overseeing the case, Judge David Carter, ruled in a partial summary judgement that the VA is discriminating against veterans earning certain amounts of disability compensation. Essentially, the disability payments many of these veterans were receiving put their income above the income threshold of what the VA said would qualify for the planned housing for the campus.