An appeals court upholds a federal judge’s order to build housing on the VA’s West Los Angeles campus

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that required the US Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 houses on its West Los Angeles campus and end the lease of a prestigious private school there.

In a complex ruling issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel affirmed several orders of US District Judge David O. Carter, finding in favor of veterans’ claims of discrimination against housing at the 388-acre facility. It overturned a judge’s order barring UCLA from leasing part of the VA grounds for its baseball stadium.

Citing “President Lincoln’s promise to care for our nation’s veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors,”
District Judge Ana de Alba opened the panel’s opinion by criticizing the VA’s stance on the case.

“This class-action lawsuit, along with dozens of other complaints, shows how far the VA has deviated from its mission,” de Alba wrote. “There are now countless homeless veterans trying to survive in and around the greater Los Angeles area despite the acres of land that the VA has provided for their care. Rather than use the West Los Angeles VA Grounds as President Lincoln intended, the VA has leased the land to third-party commercial interests that do nothing to benefit veterans.”

The panel said “the district court did not exercise its discretion in ordering the VA to build 1,800 permanent housing units and 750 temporary housing units to remedy its discrimination.”

The long-awaited ruling, following a hearing in April, rejected the VA’s contention that the Veterans Judicial Review Act, which establishes a separate court system for veterans’ benefits claims, barred the seven veterans who initially filed suit. In their broad discrimination claim the plaintiffs “were not attacking the VA’s individual benefits decisions,” it found.

The ruling will allow veterans across the country to sue for housing, said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney with the pro bono law firm Public Counsel, who is the lead attorney in the case.

“It’s the most important issue for veterans in the history of the country,” Rosenbaum said. “I think this should be the end of homelessness for veterans. It’s been a century and a long time.”

Rob Reynolds, an Iraq war veteran who has advocated for veterans seeking housing and services on the West LA campus, also hailed the decision as an overdue vindication of veterans’ needs.

“There shouldn’t have been a need for a lawsuit in the first place,” said Reynolds. “The VA should have used the West LA area as it was intended to house veterans. There should not have been a situation where veterans returning from war could not find the housing and services they needed.”

In their lawsuit, the veterans argue that the lack of housing at the facility prevents disabled veterans from receiving the physical and mental health care provided at the facility.

In upholding UCLA’s lease, the panel rejected the veterans’ argument that the 1888 deed to the veterans’ home created a charitable trust and that the West Los Angeles Lease Act of 2016, on which UCLA’s lease was based, created a fiduciary duty to fund the trust, essentially requiring the department to need housing.

UCLA released a statement saying “we are pleased with the Court of Appeals decision upholding our lease agreement with the VA. We look forward to continuing the long-standing UCLA-VA partnership that keeps Jackie Robinson Stadium the home of Bruins baseball and provides critical services and benefits to our Veterans in the Los Angeles area.”

Rosenbaum, however, said UCLA’s exemption is “temporary.”

“There’s nothing at UCLA that’s legal,” Rosemaum said. He said he made a mistake by only applying the charitable trust theory to UCLA, and that he plans to file a lawsuit on the same grounds that the task force found in voiding other leases.

While upholding Carter’s voiding of other leases, including Brentwood School’s use of 22 acres for athletic facilities, the panel said the judge went too far in barring the VA from renegotiating those leases.

The Brentwood school had reached a separate agreement with veteran plaintiffs over a new lease, but the VA refused to sign, instead appealing the case.

Rosemaum said he now thinks the VA will have to show respect for veterans.

“This case was not won by the lawyers, it was won by veterans like Rob and others who have been struggling for decades,” he said. “It’s clear that everyone who says they care about veterans will want to know what will affect their lives.”

The case was a retrial of a lawsuit from 2011 that challenged the lease and said there was an unmet need for housing for veterans. In an earlier case, a federal judge ruled that most leases did not comply with the law’s requirement for leases to “primarily benefit veterans and their families.”

In a 2015 agreement, the VA agreed to develop a campus master plan. The draft plan, completed in 2016, called for 1,200 homes in new and renovated buildings, with a commitment to complete more than 770 units by the end of 2022. Only 54 of those units were completed by the deadline, leading to a new lawsuit alleging that the VA reneged on its offer.

After a four-week non-jury trial last year, Carter ordered the VA in September to build 1,800 units of permanent housing and 750 units of temporary housing and called further hearings in the following weeks to decide what to do with the leased property, which includes UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium and Brentwood School’s sports field.

In his opening move to implement his decision, Carter ordered the VA to install 106 modular units at three locations on campus including the UCLA baseball field parking lot. That order was overturned on appeal.

The team handed the case back to Carter to carry out his order.