In a hard-hitting, sometimes-shocking ruling that blasts the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for “turning its back” on the disabled veterans it was designed to help, a federal judge on Friday ordered additional permanent housing on the agency’s West Los Angeles campus.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also determined that the department has been illegally leasing portions of the campus to a private school, UCLA’s baseball team, an oil company, and other private interests —and ordered those contracts terminated.
In the 125-page ruling, Carter wrote that the “cost of the VA’s inaction is veterans’ lives.”
The judge’s findings were issued Friday following a month-long trial of a lawsuit lodged in Los Angeles federal court against the VA by a group of unhoused veterans with disabilities, challenging land lease agreements and seeking housing on the campus for veterans in need, many of whom are homeless or must travel for hours to see their doctors.
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