A federal appeals court late Tuesday took the side of the Department of Veterans Affairs by blocking the immediate placement of 100 units of temporary housing for homeless veterans on the 388-acre campus of the flagship West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The action by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay jointly sought by the VA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on a lower court order to begin moving in 100 units of modular housing as the first step in an ambitious plan to house the estimated 3,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles by 2030.
In granting the stay, the 9th Circuit scheduled a hearing in the case for next April, which would effectively hand the decision on whether to go forward in rejecting the housing plan for homeless veterans endorsed by federal District Judge David O. Carter to former Rep. Doug Collins, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the VA.
In a bitter statement responding to the 9th Circuit’s grant of the stay, Mark Rosenbaum, one of the pro-bono lawyers representing the homeless veterans in Los Angeles, noted that the VA had a budget of $407 billion while claiming a lack of funding for temporary housing.
“The government’s action in seeking a stay, claiming a lack of resources, makes a lie of their stated commitment to end veteran homelessness as rapidly as possible,” said Rosenbaum, a senior special counsel for strategic litigation at the law firm Public Counsel.
“It’s an American tragedy,” Rosenbaum said, that on this Thanksgiving the homeless veterans of Los Angeles “have no reason to be thankful to their government as the reason for their continuing to be homeless.”
The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the stay.
However, in a news release earlier this month, the VA cited the success of its “housing first” approach to combating veteran homelessness, which focuses on getting veterans into apartments as the top priority, and then working on the wraparound social services needed to keep them off the streets.
Nearly 48,000 homeless veterans were permanently housed in fiscal 2024, the VA said, and a total of 134,000 have been housed since 2022. “We still have a long way to go, but we will not stop until every veteran has a safe, stable place to call home,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in the release.
Judge Carter ruled on Sept. 6 in the Powers v. McDonough class-action suit brought by 14 homeless veterans that the VA had reneged on its promise to house all homeless vets in its use of the spacious grounds of the West LA VAMC.
Carter cited the 1888 deed to the government of the property, which stated that the land should be used solely for the benefit of veterans, moving to void several commercial leases, including one for the UCLA baseball team’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.
He also ordered the VA to put up 750 units of temporary housing by 2026 and another 1,800 permanent units by 2030, which would be in addition to 1,200 units of permanent housing promised by the VA on the West LA grounds.
“The court finds plaintiffs are entitled to injunctive relief in the form of additional housing at the grounds and termination of the illegal land-use agreements,” Carter said in his ruling.
The VA’s land in West LA must “once again be available for its intended purpose: the housing of veterans,” he added.
Related: VA Touts Housing Homeless Vets in LA While Fighting Court Order to Build More Units