John Hueston, founding partner at Hueston Hennigan, has been selected as monitor by a California court to ensure compliance with a landmark ruling mandating access to housing for disabled veterans in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California issued the order appointing Hueston to the role on Sept. 11, shortly after releasing an opinion in Powers v. McDonough, a class action filed on behalf of veterans against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, on Sept. 6.
The ruling concluded that the VA had failed in its responsibility to build supportive housing for veterans on the West Los Angeles VA Campus and called for injunctive relief in the form of constructing additional temporary and permanent housing. It also terminated four land-use agreements on the West LA VA campus—including UCLA, Brentwood School, Safety Park and Bridgeland—after deeming them “illegal.”
“The other areas that the opinion addressed … are whether the VA had allowed a discriminatory income eligibility system to remain in place, such that the most needy veterans, those who are most disabled, did not qualify for what little housing there was available,” said Hueston. The court also found, he said, that the VA had “inadequate staffing resources,” which presented bureaucratic obstacles to veterans in qualifying for housing and failed to provide sufficient outreach about the VA’s services to unhoused veterans in downtown Los Angeles.