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The latest on the VA’s West L.A. campus housing saga
There’s fairly broad consensus that reducing California’s nation-leading homelessness won’t happen without dramatically increasing affordable housing.
But getting those units built remains an uphill battle — including for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Look no further than the VA’s West Los Angeles campus, which has become an example of the bureaucracy that critics say is delaying much needed housing for veterans who have been promised care and need it the most.
Building more housing to combat veteran homelessness has been a contentious issue for decades. But a recent ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter aims to require the VA to finally follow through.
And last week, Carter gave the VA a hard and fast deadline to start building modular housing on what’s now a parking lot for UCLA’s Jackie Robinson baseball stadium. The judge has put the pressure on the VA and its leaseholders to figure out how to get housing built on the crowded campus.
Central to that is his ruling that the 10 acres the VA leases for UCLA’s ballpark and 22 acres leased to Brentwood School’s athletic facility are a misuse of land meant to serve veterans first and foremost.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has nullified UCLA’s lease to the veterans land and ordered the parking lot of Jackie Robinson Stadium to be used for temporary housing. (Gensler)
His ruling also came with an ambitious order for the VA: Build more than 2,500 housing units for low-income veterans — and fast (by VA standards).
Times senior writer Doug Smith has been reporting on the saga for years.
“The order is Carter’s opening gambit — in the judge’s words, an ‘icebreaker’ to cut through bureaucratic malaise — toward an ambitious goal,” Doug wrote. “He’s ordered the VA to create up to 750 units of temporary housing in 18 months … and an additional 1,800 permanent units over six years.”
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