LOS ANGELES (CN) — A group of homeless veterans who suffer from mental or physical disabilities can proceed with their lawsuit to force the federal government to provide them with supportive housing on the 388-acre, flagship Veteran Affairs campus in West Los Angeles.
U.S. District Judge David Carter at a hearing Thursday in downtown LA denied motions to dismiss the lawsuit, which was brought by the VA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles.
Carter himself is a Vietnam veteran, and has used the bench before to decry the homelessness crisis that has been plaguing the LA area. At the hearing he encouraged Congress to get involved in resolving the problem of homeless vets, with many of them having returned severely disabled from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We are the homeless veterans capital of the world right now,” Carter said, referring to the 3,500 vets living on the streets of LA. “We can’t let his happen.”
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