West LA VA in Lawsuit

I waited 53 years for my day in court, and it finally arrived on August 6, 2024. All that time the NVF has been advocating for veterans, and for many of those years, working with homeless Veterans on the streets, parking lots, canyons and dry riverbeds…any place unhoused Vets congregated. We did what no one else did: we went where they were. We went searching for them to connect them with the VA benefits they had earned, to help get them into housing and shelters, to introduce them to other veteran services providers.

The Veterans Administration and the city and county of Los Angeles had managed to avoid the problem for years, while it grew to epidemic proportions, a big, messy, unmanageable problem. It was as if no one wanted to get their hands dirty dealing with this population.

A little background: in 1888, land on the present-day West LA VA campus was deeded to the federal government specifically “to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.” A hundred-thirty five years later, the NVF was asked to be one of the main plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the VA for failing to use the land in that manner. We said yes and were joined by 14 unhoused Veterans with varying disabilities.

I’ve had what you might call a front row seat to this for years. My testimony on August 6th was lengthy and detailed, two hours of it. I said the land uses benefit the Brentwood community (UCLA baseball field, the private Brentwood Academy and an oil company). Not Veterans. I said it was immoral, unjust and against the law.

Here’s the thing: the defense declined to cross-examine.

Last week, the federal judge trying the suit visited the VA campus. He walked over ten miles that day to see the situation. And now we wait while he makes his decision.