Homeless Veterans in LA: A Temporary Setback or a Sign of Things to Come?

This is an update to the article “Cronyism and Corruption at the West LA VA in Affluent Brentwood, California” previously posted on this website.

Judge David Carter has shown his willing to compromise with UCLA, despite their abject failure to follow through on several prior rulings. On October 29, 2024, Carter negotiated a sweet deal with UCLA that would reopen Jackie Robinson Stadium, and its associated practice field, training facilities and concessions. The deal, which expires on July 4, 2025, enables the UCLA baseball team to use the grounds through the 2025 College Baseball season. In exchange, UCLA will pay the VA $600,000 within the next two weeks. The judge made the deal against the wishes of the plaintiffs (LA homeless veterans and their attorneys), believing the hundreds of thousands of dollars could be used for housing.

A Recap of Events

What’s at stake? The housing and treatment of our nation’s largest homeless veteran population, on land deeded to them back in the late 1800’s. To recap, the original land grant deed by Arcadia Bandini Steams de Baker was made “for the purpose of providing homes to U.S. military veterans,” and was initially used as de Baker had intended. Many WW I veterans suffering from “shell-shock,” or what is known today as PTSD, were housed and received treatment there. It wasn’t until around 1970 that the VA decided it was going to surreptitiously shift its focus away from the housing and treatment of veterans in order to illegally lease the land for profit to a number of private organizations. Leases were handed out to an oil drilling company, a parrot sanctuary, a Shakespearean theater company, a movie studio for offsite storage, a hotel chain for laundry services, UCLA for their Jackie Robinson baseball stadium, and Brentwood School for a 22-acre athletic complex for their students.

You may be thinking, “What do these organizations have to do with the original land grant’s intended purpose of ‘providing homes to US military veterans?'” That is precisely what many of LA’s nearly 4,000 homeless veterans have been wondering for over a decade. The West LA VA’s dereliction led a handful of homeless vets and their counsel, on behalf of the thousands living in Los Angeles, to file a series of lawsuits against the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Since 2011, at least two justices, including Judge Carter, have deemed more than a dozen leases illegal. A Master Plan was drafted in 2016 specifying how the West LA VA (aka Brentwood VA) could be redeveloped back to its original purpose of housing homeless and disabled veterans. Then it turned out the Master Plan was not court-enforceable. Imagine that!

Has Any Progress Been Made?

At the very least, when would the court compel the VA to begin evictions of everyone holding nullified leases? Well, there certainly were evictions, but not of whom you’d expect. The VA turned around and booted the Salvation Army and the POST program. Yes, two organizations who did the unforgivable – they ran programs that actually helped veterans. The Salvation Army provided transitional housing for veterans with mental health conditions, while the POST program provided services for over 1,000 veterans suffering from PTSD. How dare they? The Department of Veterans Affairs appears less interested in caring for veterans than in hosting baseball games at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, and youth sporting events at the exclusive Brentwood School’s 22-acre luxury athletics complex.

Where Things Stood Previously

In response to the defendants’ prior foot-dragging and repeated failure to negotiate in good faith, Judge Carter ordered an oil well on the VA campus capped, the doors of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium closed, and temporary modular housing units placed on parking lots adjacent to the stadium. Not surprisingly, UCLA filed an appeal. What was surprising however, is that so too did the Department of Veterans Affairs, on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration. After all, the head of the US VA is an appointed cabinet-level position.

Judge Carter had promised to continue moving things forward until and unless the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled him. He repeatedly claimed to be concerned about the prospect of LA’s roughly 4,000 homeless vets living on the streets during the cold winter rainy season. Moreover, he expressed his disappointment with the VA’s many failed promises, cronyism and corruption, and blatant kowtowing to the affluent Brentwood community. Judge Carter kept reminding all parties involved that he was in this for the long haul, and would not allow the veterans to be shafted yet again.

Where Things Stand Now

On October 29, 2024 the firm-handed Judge Carter executed what appeared to be a startling about-face. He reopened Jackie Robinson Stadium located on the West LA VA campus, to the UCLA baseball team. His motivation: the plaintiffs and their attorneys should not pass up the $600,000 annual rent (increased from $320,000) UCLA had offered for use of the stadium, and associated practice field, training facilities and concessions. He reasoned that “it would not make sense to pass up money that could be used for housing now.” How ironic, given that Carter had scoffed at the same deal just a few weeks prior. Rob Reynolds, a leading veteran advocate stated, “It’s a travesty.” I am inclined to agree.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration, along with local and state officials, the affluent Brentwood School, UCLA, and of course the wealthy neighborhood of Brentwood, California – home to the West Los Angeles VA Campus – have all succeeded in doing what they have done for the last thirteen-plus years. They have obfuscated, foot-dragged and manipulated their way into keeping everything pretty much status quo, as it was before those pesky homeless vets created all this ruckus.

As for UCLA’s $600,000 meaningfully procuring any sort of housing for veterans, recall from my prior article, it cost $130,000 for the City of LA to build one single 64 square-foot “tiny home,” smaller than many DIY Home Depot sheds. It would appear then that Judge Carter sold out LA’s over 4,000 homeless vets for the ability to house a whopping four of them (or 4.6 of them if you want to split hairs, but you can’t split a tiny home – or can you?), all so the UCLA baseball team can get back to their games. One question that remains is whether Judge Carter, a former Marine, forgot the U.S. Marine Corps motto, “Semper Fi” (Semper Fidelis), meaning “Always Faithful.” More specifically, each Marine promises  to be “always faithful to those on our left and right, from the fellow Marines we fight alongside, to those in our communities for which we fight.”

According to CBS News Los Angeles (KCAL), Carter’s order to construct the temporary modular housing units on parking lots adjacent to Jackie Robinson Stadium will continue as planned. Whether the units are ready and available to any of the thousands of homeless veterans sleeping on the streets of LA prior to the upcoming cold, rainy season, remains to be seen. Hopefully Judge Carter will keep the wind at the backs of the dependably laggard VA and friends. As for the impact of Judge Carter’s decision favoring UCLA and the upcoming college baseball season, hopefully it does not portend greater setbacks for the homeless veterans. Only time will tell.

Note: For a review of the ongoing litigation between LA’s homeless veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs, please refer to my previous post, “Cronyism and Corruption at the West LA VA in Affluent Brentwood, California.”