By FRED SHUSTER
UCLA is set to resume temporary use of its previously shuttered baseball stadium on the Veterans Affairs grounds in West Los Angeles Tuesday after coming to an agreement with a federal judge about placement of emergency housing for needy vets on adjacent parking lots.
U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote in an order filed Monday that since UCLA has agreed to pay $600,000 to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs within two weeks, the court will allow UCLA access to Jackie Robinson Stadium until the end of the 2025 baseball season.
The temporary lease, also covering the small adjacent practice field and concessions and training facilities within the stadium, will extend no later than July 4, the judge wrote.
“The stadium and practice field land may be needed in the future if VA continues to argue, contrary to the court’s findings, that there is insufficient space available for veteran housing on the campus,” according to the order. “After July 4, 2025, the land on which the baseball facilities sits may be used for housing. If UCLA is unable to reach a new agreement with VA by that date, UCLA will lose access.”
The judge previously signed an emergency declaration, finding disabled and homeless veterans in urgent need of shelter as the rainy season approaches. “All efforts by the parties should focus on providing immediate shelter on the grounds of the campus before approaching winter conditions,” Carter wrote.
As a result, two designated paved parking lots near the stadium will become active construction sites within three weeks as work begins on placement of electrical and sewage lines and the forthcoming construction of modular units, the judge wrote, with on-site assessments already underway.
Carter’s Oct. 7 emergency order held that “with fall and winter approaching and with thousands of homeless veterans still living on the streets, an emergency exists.”
The developments stem from the month-long trial in August 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. The judge, an 80-year-old Vietnam War veteran, found for the veterans.
During the non-jury trial, the VA argued that it is out of space on its 388-acre campus, and that the lack of available acreage precludes any increase to the 1,200 housing units the agency promised to open by 2030. VA attorneys alleged that any relief ordered by the court would burden the department financially and deprive it of the flexibility needed to solve veteran homelessness.
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Ultimately, the court found that veterans are entitled to more than 2,500 units of housing at the campus. After finding that land-use agreements with UCLA’s baseball team, the affluent Brentwood School, an oil company, and other private interests on the West Los Angeles campus were illegal, Carter terminated the leases.
The court is currently devising “exit strategies” for former tenants in order to ensure the land — including 10 acres leased to UCLA and 22 acres contracted to the Brentwood School — is put to a use that principally benefits veterans.
The judge last month directed the VA to build up to 750 units of temporary housing within 18 months and to form a plan to add another 1,800 units of permanent housing to the roughly 1,200 units already planned under the settlement terms of an earlier lawsuit.
Carter held that for years the VA — budgeted at $407 billion annually — has “quietly sold off” land badly needed for homeless military veterans.