A federal judge on Friday slammed the Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to build enough homes for veterans in West Los Angeles and ruled that a private school, UCLA, an oil driller and a parking lot operator must vacate some of the most valuable real estate in America because their leases with the VA are illegal.
Judge David O. Carter – ruling in a lawsuit brought by homeless vets – ordered the VA to build about 2,500 temporary and permanent units of housing on the land so that more veterans can move off the street and the neediest among them can access the medical facilities available on the agency’s West Los Angeles campus.
“Today marks the first step on the long road of getting that land back to its intended purpose,” said Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran and advocate. “As a soldiers’ home for disabled veterans.”