Order to build thousands of housing units on the VA's West LA campus stands on appeal
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Set us as preferred The U.S.9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a federal judge’s order requiring the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs to build 2,550 units of housing on its West Los Angeles campus.A two-paragraph order denied the VA’s request to have the entire 9th Circuit review a three-judge panel’s rejection of its appeal.“No further petitions for rehearing will be entertained,” the order said.
“It’s a really good day,’ said Mark Rosenbaum, the lead attorney in the class action case filed on behalf of disabled veterans.“It’s a tribute to all the veterans who stood up to their government and demanded it honor its commitment to the men and women who sacrificed for their nation and found when they came home that their government would not stand up for them,” Rosenbaum said in a statement.Rosenbaum, of the civil rights law firm Public Counsel, said he expects U.S.
District Judge David O.Carter to quickly schedule status conference to set a compliance timetable for the government.
The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The 2022 lawsuit alleged that the VA discriminates against disabled veterans by not providing housing on campus near the medical services they need to access.It also challenged the VA’s leases of portions of the 388-acre campus to non-veteran interests, including UCLA and the private Brentwood School for athletic facilities.In his October 2024 final judgment, Carter ruled those leases invalid.He 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, all in addition to 1,200 units ordered in the settlement of a previous lawsuit.Later that month, hoping to get some housing built before the rainy season, he ordered the VA to secure a contract within three weeks to install at least...