A federal appeals court has granted the government’s motion to stay a judge’s ruling ordering the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 100 temporary housing units for disabled veterans on VA property in West Los Angeles, according to court papers.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previously issued a temporary stay of U.S. District Judge David Carter’s order for the immediate placement of modular housing on designated space on the VA grounds pending the court’s resolution of the VA’s motion.
The appellate decision on Monday means that, as the government sought, no action will be taken to construct temporary housing or speed the process of building permanent housing on the VA campus until after the government’s appeal is decided.
“We appreciate that the court accelerated the hearing on the government’s appeal, so the case will be heard in April,” Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney representing the veterans, said in a statement. “The government argued to the court that the VA, with an annual budget of $407 billion, had no resources for the purposes of putting housing ordered by the court on the 388-acre West LA grounds, which were deeded to the government to serve as a home for unhoused veterans whose disabilities like brain trauma, PTSD, and severe mental illness were incurred as result of service to the nation.”
Rosenbaum said the cost of such housing is “less than one-hundredth of 1% of the VA’s annual budget. 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. This Thanksgiving, the government should be thankful for the sacrifices unhoused disabled veterans made on its behalf. It’s an American tragedy that in return, these heroic disabled veterans have no reason to be thankful to their government as the reason for their continuing to be homeless.”
The placement of modular housing units was ordered by Carter as an emergency remedy for homeless veterans in light of approaching inclement weather. Work had already begun to prepare the designated areas for the modular units when the temporary stay was issued.
Carter’s 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 August trial of a lawsuit filed 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 it was 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.
In his 33-page order denying the VA’s motion for stay pending appeal, Carter wrote that the VA continues to challenge the court’s jurisdiction in the matter.
“VA continues to resist accountability, while excluding veteran input,” the judge wrote. “Despite decades of mismanagement of the West LA VA campus, failed promises, missed deadlines, and VA ignoring prior court decisions, federal defendants seek to stall plaintiffs’ progress and this court’s findings. VA wants no juridical oversight and no remedy for repeated violations.”
In a recent statement, the VA said it has made progress in combating homelessness in the Los Angeles area. The department said it is permanently housing 1,854 homeless military veterans this fiscal year, “the most of any city in America (for the third year in a row).”
The data show a 22.9% reduction in veterans experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles between 2023 and 2024, according to the VA.
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, the affluent Brentwood School, an oil company and other private interests on the West Los Angeles campus were illegal, Carter terminated the leases.
Although he shredded the leases, the judge allowed UCLA to resume using its baseball stadium for a year after the university agreed to pay $600,000 to the VA.
When the stay was issued, the court was in the midst of devising “exit strategies” for former tenants in order to ensure that 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 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.