Homeless veterans who were evacuated from the grounds of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center have begun returning to an uncertain future on the facility’s spacious campus as the fire threat has receded.
In a news release Thursday, the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, or VAGLAHS, said that “the campus is ready to resume full services and welcome veterans back” following what was described as a “precautionary move” to protect against the threat from the Palisades fire.
LA has been gripped by historic wildfires fueled by seasonal winds since last week, with the blazes destroying 4 square miles of densely developed areas of the city, The Associated Press reported Friday. Overall, the fires have killed at least 27, forced evacuation orders for 80,000 people, and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, and are likely to be the worst in California history.
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Residents of the Community Living Centers, or nursing homes, on the West LA VAMC grounds were also returning to the campus, but a CLC group that was relocated to the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System will not be brought back until next week, the release said.
The CLC on the north campus of the 388-acre West LA VAMC provides short- and long-term care for veterans, including mental health care and hospice care, the release added.
The VA in Los Angeles did not give numbers of how many veterans in transitional housing or in the CLC were evacuated. But volunteers told local news outlets that as many as 200 veterans were moved out of temporary shelters beginning last Saturday to an American Red Cross shelter and the Stoner Park Recreation Center and then to the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
In a statement, Robert Merchant, the VAGLAHS medical center director, said the return of the veterans to the West LA facility “marks a heartfelt step toward normalcy and recovery” for the veterans.
But their status on the campus is subject to an ongoing court case.
The West LA VAMC, which houses UCLA’s baseball stadium, the athletic facilities of the Brentwood school district and several active oil wells on its sprawling grounds, is under a court order from federal District Judge David O. Carter to begin building 750 units of temporary housing for homeless veterans immediately and 1,200 units of permanent housing by 2030.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has responded that it lacks the funds to comply with Carter’s order and has appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is not expected to take up the case until April.
Rob Reynolds, a veterans advocate and Army veteran of Iraq who has followed the court case closely, said the fire threat and the evacuations only underlined the need for more permanent housing on the grounds of the West LA VAMC.
Following the fires that devastated wide swaths of Los Angeles, “I don’t know how they can make the case that we don’t need more housing,” Reynolds said.
Related: Homeless Vets and Nursing Home Patients Evacuated from West Los Angeles VA to Escape Wildfires