Brandon Killman
is a social media producer who turns the newsroom's reporting into engaging social media stories and multimedia content.
Published December 4, 2025 5:06 PM
A bottle of Angelica wine made from grapes harvested at Mission San Gabriel's 250-year-old grapevine.
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Brandon Killman
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LAist
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Topline:
A 250-year-old grapevine at Mission San Gabriel is leaning into L.A.'s oft-forgotten identity as California's original wine capital, producing Angelica — the city's oldest wine — for sale to the public thanks to local winemakers and volunteers.
Wine description: Angelica, once made by Franciscan friars at Mission San Gabriel, is a fortified wine, made with fresh grape juice and brandy. It’s sweet, viscous and strong — a glass (or two) is all you need after a holiday meal. Winemakers from Angeleno Wine company have made a small batch, following an old recipe found at the Mission. Each bottle costs $75.
The backstory: The Mother Vine at Mission San Gabriel, planted around 1775, supplied cuttings that built the state's wine industry. By the mid 20th century, L.A.’s winemaking industry had virtually disappeared. Recently, a group of local winemakers have been reviving the tradition. When they were called to the Mission to help cultivate the vine, they realized they’d stumbled upon grapes that could be traced back to its establishment.
When Terri Huerta called local winemakers about a problem with a meandering vine at Mission San Gabriel in the city of San Gabriel, she thought she'd get gardening help. Instead, she sparked a revival of L.A.'s oldest wine.
Mission San Gabriel's 250-year-old grapevine, one of the oldest living vines in California, continues to produce grapes for the Angelica wine revival.
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Brandon Killman
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LAist
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The vine in question isn't your typical grapevine. It's a 250-year-old beast with a trunk so massive two people can't wrap their arms around it. Because it served as the source for cuttings that spread throughout California's early vineyards, it’s now known as the Mother Vine.
For centuries, it just sprawled across the mission courtyard like some ancient, living pergola that refuses to quit, with no one taking any notice of the grapes flourishing each season.
But now, thanks to a group of determined local winemakers, that fruit is being transformed into Angelica, a sweet wine fortified with brandy that Franciscan missionaries made there in the 1700s — making it the city’s oldest wine.
A limited edition batch was launched Nov. 28 by the Angeleno Wine Company. There are fewer than 200 bottles for sale, and at $75, it's not cheap. But break that down by the vine's age, and you're paying 30 cents per year of history.
How it started
The collaboration began in 2020 when Huerta, director of mission development at Mission San Gabriel, reached out to the Los Angeles Vintners Association looking for help to manage the grapevine.
The association — a partnership among three L.A. wineries: Angeleno Wine Company, Byron Blatty Wines and Cavalletti Vineyards — sent winemakers Mark Blatty, Patrick Kelly, Jasper Dickson and Amy Luftig to assess the situation. They found something bigger than a courtyard cleanup project. They found grapes. A lot of them.
"The vine was full of fruit, and I told them it was just a nuisance every year," Huerta recalls. "They asked, 'What are you going to do with all this fruit?' and I said, 'I really don't know.'”
That's when the group offered to help take it off Huerta’s hands.
Grapes from Mission San Gabriel's 250-year-old grapevine used in the Angelica wine revival.
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Courtesy of John Pryor
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Wine history
Although the Napa Valley now reigns supreme as the region’s wine industry, L.A. once was the center for the entire state. Mission San Gabriel’s vine was planted by Franciscan friars after the establishment of the mission in 1775 to make sacramental wine to be used during mass. DNA analysis has since revealed its forebears: It's a hybrid of Spanish Listán Prieto grapes and native California Vitis girdiana.
This vine’s cuttings helped launch the many vineyards that began to crop up around the newly founded grape fields, which became numerous. By 1850, L.A. boasted over 100 vineyards. If you look carefully, even today, the city of L.A.’s seal has a bunch of grapes hanging at the top.
The official seal of the city of Los Angeles.
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Courtesy city of Los Angeles
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The wines were popular with fortune seekers headed north to the Gold Rush. The industry flourished until 1883, when an outbreak of Pierce's Disease destroyed thousands of acres of vines across SoCal. Urban sprawl replaced vineyards with housing through the mid-20th century.
Today, almost nothing remains of L.A. 's once-dominant wine industry — with the exception of the Mother Vine and a handful of its descendants scattered across the city.
Across from Union Station a direct descendant is still growing over tourist and vendor heads. It’s a 200-year-old vine at Olvera Street's Avila Adobe, the oldest standing residence in the city of L.A.
Storing up the grapes
The winemakers started picking the fruit at the Mission in 2020. But it wasn’t enough to make a substantial batch of wine, so the grapes were stored. For the past five years, the winemakers, joined with volunteers, have harvested the fruit each season, carefully packing it away.
In the meantime, they began to dig into mission records for mentions of grapes and winemaking. One day they came across a document from the 1800s, which outlined a recipe for Angelica, a fortified wine made from grape juice and brandy.
"Angelica is said to be made by mixing one gallon of grape brandy with three of grape juice, fresh from the press," it said. "It is a thick, sweet and strong drink, yet of very delicate flavor."
The fortification wasn't just about taste — it was a necessity. In an era before refrigeration, adding brandy preserved the wine, allowing it to survive California's heat and long journeys between missions.
Two of the winemakers, Dickson and Luftig, were especially interested. They’d been making wine from grapes grown locally in the SoCal region since 2018 at their winery Angeleno Wine Company, which produces everything on-site near Chinatown.
They became intrigued by the idea of recreating Angelica. Following the historical recipe, they pressed fresh Mission grapes and fortified the juice with brandy before fermentation. Then they used the solera system — a traditional Spanish method that blends wines across multiple vintages — aging the wine in oak barrels for years.
Initially, they made limited batches solely for the company’s wine club members, which quickly sold out.
This year’s Angelica is the group’s third batch but the first to go on sale to the public. It includes grapes that have been harvested from 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The wine pours a pale cherry color and has a syrup-like consistency. The brandy comes through right away, caramel and warm spices with refreshing acidity cutting through the sweetness. It's thick, decadent and undeniably strong — a small glass (or two) is all that’s needed after a warm holiday meal.
Angelica wine
Visit Mission San Gabriel to see the Mother Vine's massive trunk and sprawling pergola at 428 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel.
Angelica wine is available through Angeleno Wine Company, 1646 N. Spring St., Unit C, Los Angeles.
The harvest
Harvesting the grapes doesn't look like the romantic wine country fantasy you see in magazines.
Instead of long rows of vines with grapes easily accessed, harvesters have to pick the fruit from below the canopy.
"Everyone has to bring ladders because we're picking like this," Dickson says, gesturing upward in the Mission’s courtyard. "We're literally placing ladders on ancient monks' tombstones to reach the fruit above the graves."
This year the harvest happened in October.
Volunteers harvest grapes at Mission San Gabriel for the Angelica wine revival project.
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Amy Luftig
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Angeleno Wine Co.
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John Pryor, a volunteer, has done multiple harvests. He describes it plainly: "You're not in a vineyard. You're in a garden at a Catholic church. The vines are trellised 12 feet high and go on for a hundred yards."
For his daughter, 27 year-old Meg Pryor, seeing the massive trunk drove home what "old" actually means.
"Whenever we're there, I'm thinking, 'People were doing this a century ago, two centuries ago,'" she said.
John and Meg Pryor help harvest grapes from Mission San Gabriel's historic grapevine for the Angelica wine revival project.
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Courtesy of John Pryor
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Understanding who most of those workers were centuries ago means confronting some difficult issues. Huerta of Mission San Gabriel acknowledges the mission system relied on Indigenous labor, and the vine's hybrid nature suggests native plant knowledge may have contributed to its development.
But she doesn't shy away from the complexity.
"You can't tell Mission history without including all the parts," she says. "You can't tell one story without telling another story. Winemaking has always been a part of L.A. history. The grapes were brought by the Franciscans. They didn't just start here in California. They started in Mexico, so its complexity makes it interesting, but it also makes it controversial."
Going forward, Angeleno Wine Company plans to release a limited batch of Angelica as a seasonal offering each year, as long as the Mother Vine continues to produce fruit.
Stealing a smooch under the mistletoe is a time-honored holiday tradition — but the word itself has an origin that invokes the exact opposite of romance.
Bird poop on a twig: The etymology of mistletoe — a plant with small, oval evergreen leaves and waxy white berries — likely comes from the Anglo-Saxon words for manure — "mist" or "mistel" — and "tan" (sometimes rendered as "toe"), meaning "twig" or "stick."
Cultural practices: The oldest customs surrounding mistletoe are likely tied to celebrations of the winter solstice, according to Bettina Arnold, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. These go back to the Neolithic era in prehistoric Europe. "All agricultural societies would have made note of [the winter solstice] because it literally is the time when… you can start seeing the days getting longer again," she says. "So it's a return to life after sort of a seasonal death, in a way." The mistletoe, being evergreen, "is actually almost a metaphor for that."
Read on ... to learn where the plant's association with kissing comes from.
Stealing a smooch under the mistletoe is a time-honored holiday tradition — but the word itself has an origin that invokes the exact opposite of romance.
As part of NPR's "Word of the Week" series, we're exploring the history of the plant's name, diving into the tradition of kissing beneath it, and taking a scientific detour along the way.
The etymology of mistletoe — a plant with small, oval evergreen leaves and waxy white berries — likely comes from the Anglo-Saxon words for manure — "mist" or "mistel" — and "tan" (sometimes rendered as "toe"), meaning "twig" or "stick."
"It literally means bird poop on a twig," according to Susie Dent, a British lexicographer and author of Guilt by Definition.
The name stems from the way its seeds are carried by birds and dropped after passing through their digestive tract. This method of seed dispersal is called endozoochory, says Tristram Seidler, a biology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the curator of the UMass Amherst Herbarium.
In short, animals eat fruits, including berries, move on and "deposit" the seeds in a different location, he says. For mistletoe seeds, that location happens to be the tops of trees. From an evolutionary standpoint, Seidler says, species survival can depend on getting seeds away from the parent plant.
"Any seeds that land near their parent plant may germinate," he explains. "But they're almost certainly going to be wiped out by disease because those areas tend to be crowded and small plants are very susceptible to their own pathogens."
Humans, then, make use of the mistletoe spread by those birds — planting it in cultural practices that stretch back into antiquity.
Mistletoe history
The oldest customs surrounding mistletoe are likely tied to celebrations of the winter solstice, according to Bettina Arnold, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. These go back to the Neolithic era in prehistoric Europe.
"All agricultural societies would have made note of [the winter solstice] because it literally is the time when… you can start seeing the days getting longer again," she says. "So it's a return to life after sort of a seasonal death, in a way." The mistletoe, being evergreen, "is actually almost a metaphor for that."
Arnold says that Pliny the Elder, a first-century Roman author, provided a detailed account of mistletoe and its use by druids, a nature- and ritual-focused priesthood that lived in Iron Age Gaul (modern-day France) and the British Isles. Pliny said that when they found mistletoe growing on a particular kind of oak tree, a priest in white vestments would climb up to cut down the mistletoe with a golden sickle.
"They believe that mistletoe given in drink will impart fertility to any animal that is barren, and that it is an antidote for all poisons," Pliny wrote. (In fact, modern medical literature says the exact opposite).
Given mistletoe's association with fertility and rebirth, it's not surprising that it made its way into Christian tradition, Arnold says, noting that although we often forget it today, "the Roman Catholic Church is really kind of an extension of the Roman Empire." The Romans themselves also had their own solstice tradition that seeped into Christian practice: Saturnalia, in honor of the god of agriculture, Saturn, included decorating homes with evergreen boughs, wreaths and garlands to symbolize renewal.
Norse mythology adds another mistletoe tale — of Baldur, the god of light. In a story reminiscent of the Greek hero Achilles, Baldur's mother, Frigg, makes her son invincible to all things except mistletoe. Loki, the trickster, exploits this unusual weakness by using an arrow made of mistletoe to kill Baldur. In some later versions of the story, Frigg's tears over her son's death become mistletoe berries, symbolizing her love.
Plant a kiss
So, what about all the kissing?
A reference appears in a song from the 1784 musical comedy Two for One, which celebrates "what good luck has sent ye / And kiss beneath the mistletoe."
It's the oldest written reference to the custom, according to Arnold. It appears to have gained popularity in the following centuries, with holiday themes of regeneration, renewal and redemption helping to reinforce it.
According to author Dent, the story of mistletoe reflects this transformation, evolving from a "slightly scatological beginning … [to] blossom into something rather beautiful."
Dave Young Kim's 'Mythical Creatures' can be seen at Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum.
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Peter Perigo
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Pacific Asia Museum
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In this edition:
See ‘Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special,’ a new show at USC’s Pacific Asia Museum, catch the annual Lythgoe Family Panto in Thousand Oaks and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
A museum-wide installation takes over USC’s Pacific Asia Museum starting in February, but you can get a sneak preview of the innovative project — Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry— conceived by Los Angeles–based Korean American artist and muralist Dave Young Kim over the holidays.
Artist Shepard Fairey is DJing, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater is performing and DJ Lance Rock is hosting this charity screening of the iconic 1988 Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. The evening will benefit AnimAID, which helps animation professionals whose lives have been affected by the wildfires.
For the uninitiated, a panto is a sort of mistold fairy tale rewritten with audience participation, bawdy (but typically kid-friendly) humor and colorful costumes and sets. The Lythgoe Family Panto brings a taste of that to L.A. every year, this year with The Wonderful Winter of Oz, starring none other than J. Peterman himself, John O’Hurley.
Debra Scacco’s work is only on display for another couple of weeks; make sure you get over to Santa Monica Airport to see the project from the beach city’s first Public Works Department Artist in Residence program before it’s gone in early January.
I hope your holidays are very merry so far. Here at LAist, we headed out to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena recently to get a fresh look at the art collection, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. If you have time in this light traffic (and rainy!) week, it’s worth the ride to check out this gem. Or if old Hollywood glam is more your thing, Fiona Ng scoped out the ASU FIDM museum downtown, which has more than 300 artifacts in its care that you can visit — including many pieces worn by Marlene Dietrich.
Licorice Pizza’s music picks for the weekend include the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Mint on Friday, plus RL Grime at Academy L.A. and Quiet Riot at the Whisky a Go Go, both also on Friday. Sunday has hair metal vets the BulletBoys at the Whisky, and actress and performance artist Ann Magnuson will do an encore performance of her “The Luv Show - 30th Anniversary” Celebration at Zebulon.
Preview through Sunday, January 4 Pacific Asia Museum 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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David Kim
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Pacific Asia Museum
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A museum-wide installation takes over USC’s Pacific Asia Museum starting in February, but you can get a sneak preview at the innovative project, conceived by Los Angeles-based Korean American artist and muralist Dave Young Kim, over the holidays. Mythical Creatures is an immersive exhibit that spans 12 rooms and tells visitors a story in verse across the museum’s walls. It features 100 objects from USC PAM’s diverse collection of Asian art, as well as new work from Dinh Q. Lê, Lily Honglei, Wendy Park, Momoko Schafer, Kyungmi Shin, Sanjay Vora, Lauren YS and more.
Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special
Saturday, December 27, 5 p.m. Alex Theatre 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale COST: FROM $19; MORE INFO
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Courtesy The Alex Theatre
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Artist Shepard Fairey is DJing, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater is performing and DJ Lance Rock is hosting this charity screening of the iconic 1988 Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. The evening will benefit AnimAID, which helps animation professionals whose lives have been affected by the wildfires. The movie is followed by a holiday concert at 8 p.m. with Tom Kenny & the Hi-Seas.
The Wonderful Winter of Oz
Through Sunday, December 28 Scherr Forum at Bank of American Performing Arts Center 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks COST: FROM $42; MORE INFO
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Lythgoe Family Panto
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Ticketmaster
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A very British tradition at Christmastime is going to a panto — a pantomime — with your family and friends. For the uninitiated, a panto is a sort of mistold fairy tale rewritten with audience participation, bawdy (but typically kid-friendly) humor and colorful costumes and sets. The Lythgoe Family Panto brings a taste of that to L.A. every year, this year with The Wonderful Winter of Oz, starring none other than J. Peterman himself, John O’Hurley.
When Harry Met Sally…
Saturday and Sunday, December 27 and 28, 11 a.m. Art Theatre 2025 E. 4th St., Long Beach COST: $13; MORE INFO
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Columbia Pictures
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Honor Rob Reiner’s legacy by heading to Long Beach for a screening of the best holiday movie and best rom-com of all time (don’t @ me), When Harry Met Sally…
2025 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour
Sunday, December 28, 7 p.m. Los Feliz Theatre 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz COST: $17; MORE INFO
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Courtesy American Cinematheque
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Take the opportunity to see some great indie shorts as American Cinematheque and Vimeo present a showcase of seven standouts from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The event is followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.
S.H.I.N.E. Mawusa
Saturday, December 27, 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. World Stage 4321 Degnan Blvd., Leimert Park COST: $5 SUGGESTED DONATION; MORE INFO
Every Saturday, S.H.I.N.E. Mawusi — Sisters Healing, Inspiring, Nurturing, and Empowering, in the Hands of God — brings West African drum culture to the L.A. community. World Stage hosts this suggested donation-only performance, which teaches African culture through music and dance.
Laboratory for the Future
Through January 4, Thursdays to Sundays, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Propeller Gallery Airport Arts Center 3026 Airport Ave., Santa Monica COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Debra Scacco
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Debra Scacco’s work is only on display for another couple of weeks; make sure you get over to Santa Monica Airport to see the project from the beach city’s first Public Works Department Artist in Residence program before it’s gone in early January. Scacco explores the relationship between “water, waste, and urban ecology” and uses clay from Santa Monica’s water well excavation alongside portraits of city essential workers in the installation.
Holiday tours & Vault Experience
Saturday and Sunday, December 27 and 28 Petersen Automotive Museum 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile COST: $150; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum
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If you left the car fanatic in your life off your list, this is the perfect opportunity to make up for the oversight. Included in your Peterson Automotive Museum admission is a special tour of the Vault — home to many rare and vintage cars — a trip to the museum’s mechanic’s shop, where restoration work on the vehicles is ongoing, and a gift certificate to the museum’s restaurant, Meyers Manx.
Papusas and Punchlines
Friday, December 26, 7:30 p.m. Jaragua Restaurant 4493 Beverly Blvd., Mid-City COST: FROM $19.50; MORE INFO
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Papusas and Punchlines
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Eventbrite
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Eat delicious papusas and laugh till it hurts at Jaragua for their ongoing Papusas and Punchlines series, this week with a holiday theme. Comics from HBO, Jimmy Kimmel Live and more will perform.
Keep up with LAist.
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Aparna Nancherla in her comedy special "Hopeful Potato" on the Dropout streaming network.
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Kate Elliott
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Topline:
Comedian Aparna Nancherla has dealt with social anxiety her whole life. Touching grass and acknowledging that some days will just be bad days are key to how she gets through hard days.
Context: Nancherla’s new comedy special Hopeful Potato was just released on the Dropout streaming service. Her special touches on her journey dealing with depression and social anxiety.
Read on… for her recommendations on decompressing in L.A.
Aparna Nancherla’s comedy career spans almost two decades. She started in standup, has written for shows like Mythic Quest and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and acted in shows like Search Party, Corporate and BoJack Horseman.
After taking a break from standup to write a memoir turned into an extended hiatus.
”I was mining some real, raw personal depths and facing some parts of myself that I hadn't looked at really closely,” Nancherla told LAist. “And then I think trying to get up in front of a bunch of strangers at night was just too much for my nervous system.”
Nancherla is now back with her first hour-long special.
In Hopeful Potato — available now on Dropout, a streaming service dedicated to comedy — she shares her journey navigating her social anxiety in everyday life.
Nancherla joined LAist All Things Considered host Julia Paskin to talk about how she deals with anxiety and depression and her recommendations for places to decompress in L.A.
Good advice and bad mental health advice she’s received
Julia Paskin: Let's talk about good advice.
Aparna Nancherla: Ironically, the internet's recommendation to touch grass. I think seeing actual people being a little out in the world [and] spending time in nature, those are all things that have helped me. But also realizing that your coping mechanisms are not always gonna work the way you want them to. Deep breathing or taking a self-care day, sometimes it won't make you feel better… I think that just accepting that's part of it too. Like some days you're just gonna feel bad and that doesn't mean you failed.
Julia Paskin: Could I ask you [for] some of your top worst tips you've received for dealing with depression and anxiety?
Aparna Nancherla: I've heard, "Just don't think about it." I'm like, "Oh yeah, I haven't tried that." [Also], something along the lines of: "Suck it up. We're all having a hard time. Everyone's a little depressed." That kind of thing. And honestly, I do find going for a walk or exercising or drinking more water, those can be helpful things. But I think people often utilize them as the solution, like this will cure you. And I'm like, there is not really a cure. It's an ongoing, non-linear journey, and I don't think people understand that.
Places to avoid being a hermit
Julia Paskin: You talk in the special about having had "big hermit energy" at one point [...] You mentioned touching grass. Any particular spots in L.A. to go touch grass?
Aparna Nancherla: I mean, very on-brand for me, but I love a coffee shop, I love a library, something where you're around people, but maybe you don't have to directly engage with them, but there's some social contact… I do think it's [...] important to kind of push myself to be out in the world. 'Cause I think sometimes it can be a slippery slope with being like, is this really a self-care day at this point? You haven't seen anyone for 10 days. Like maybe this is more a sign [that] you need to have lunch with a friend.
Just a couple months ago, [I] got a membership to the L.A. County Arboretum…[I’m an] admirer of waterfalls, and they have a big one planted right in the middle called the Meyberg Waterfall. And it is just one of my really happy places.
Julia Paskin: Do you have a favorite library or bookshop or anything like that, that you'd recommend?
Aparna Nancherla: I'm in Pasadena, so I love the Pasadena Public Library system. … There's actually a library I really love in Glassell Park. The Eagle Rock Library I love. And then there's just like great coffee shops around those places too, like Habitat and Penny Oven.
Navigating mental health in an unstable entertainment industry
The unpredictability of the entertainment industry — from the shuttering of studios during the pandemic, to fears of AI and the potential effect of corporate mergers on jobs — has increased anxiety for people working in Hollywood. Nancherla’s advice for dealing with this uncertainty? Support one another.
Aparna Nancherla: I think what helps in these moments is as a creator [thinking] what can I make? What brings me joy? What connects me to other people? And for me it is kind of going back to smaller things where it's like [doing] a local show. I just did a fundraiser for a local L.A. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who's doing such great work with housing and people's wages. And I think it's so important to remember there are degrees of power and ways we can show up for each other that don't have to do with billionaires, and mergers and things that hopefully people can work towards changing, but might not change overnight.
Nancherla’s comedy special "Hopeful Potato’"is available to stream now on Dropout.
Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published December 24, 2025 3:16 PM
Members of the clean-up crew dismantled tents located on the Veterans Row homeless encampment along San Vicente Boulevard just outside the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus in November 2021.
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Al Seib
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Getty Images
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Topline:
A federal appeals court has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 housing units on its West Los Angeles campus. The plaintiff’s attorneys say the decision could effectively end veteran homelessness in the region.
The ruling: The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Tuesday that found the agency discriminated against disabled veterans by leasing land to commercial interests instead of providing housing. The Ninth Circuit ordered the VA to construct 750 temporary housing units within 18 months and 1,800 permanent units within six years on the 388-acre property.
How we got here: The property was deeded to the federal government in 1888 specifically as a soldiers' home. In a 2015 settlement, the VA promised to build 1,200 housing units with more than 770 completed by 2022, but the agency fell far short of that deadline. Los Angeles County is home to more than 3,000 unhoused veterans.
Commercial leases: The court invalidated most commercial leases on the property, including Brentwood School's 22-acre sports complex and an oil company's drilling license. However, it overturned the district court's previous invalidation of UCLA's lease for its baseball stadium. The plaintiff's lawyers said they plan to refile that portion of the case.
Read on ... for details about the ruling.
A federal appeals court has upheld a court order requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 housing units on its West Los Angeles campus.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered the VA to construct 750 temporary units for veterans within 18 months and 1,800 permanent housing units within six years.
The ruling found the agency had “strayed from its mission” by leasing land to commercial interests like a UCLA baseball field and Brentwood School sports complex, instead of caring for veterans.
“There are now scores of unhoused veterans trying to survive in and around the greater Los Angeles area despite the acres of land deeded to the VA for their care,” Judge Ana de Alba wrote in the opinion.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Powers v. McDonough case say the ruling could end veteran homelessness in the Los Angeles region, which is home to more than 3,000 unhoused veterans, according to official estimates.
"It's the most important ruling in the history of this country concerning the rights of veterans," said Mark Rosenbaum, lead attorney with Public Counsel, during a press conference Wednesday. “After this case, there should be no such thing as a homeless veteran.”
The VA did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment on the ruling.
‘Long overdue’
The appeals court affirmed most of U.S. District Judge David O. Carter's 2024 ruling, which found the VA discriminated against disabled veterans by failing to provide adequate housing on the 388-acre property deeded as a soldiers' home back in 1888.
The main plaintiff named in the class-action lawsuit, Jeffrey Powers, lived in a tent outside the gates of the VA Medical Center.
At a press conference Wednesday, Powers told reporters this week’s appeals court ruling delivers “about 80%” of what he wanted.
“We got the most important thing, which was to get veterans off the street,” Powers said. “And for that, I'm happy with the outcome.”
The case stems from a 2015 settlement in which the VA promised to build 1,200 housing units, with more than 770 completed by 2022. The department missed that deadline, prompting the new lawsuit.
Iraq War veteran Rob Reynolds came to the West L.A. VA for PTSD treatment in 2018, met veterans sleeping on the streets outside and began advocating for them.
During Wednesday’s press event, he called this week’s Ninth Circuit ruling “long overdue.”
"There should never have been a lawsuit filed in the first place,” Reynolds said. “ They were using the property for everything but what it was intended for, and that's housing.”
The veteran plaintiffs argued that lack of on-campus housing prevented disabled veterans from accessing physical and mental health services at the facility.
As of late 2024, the VA said there were 307 veteran housing units open on the West L.A. campus and 461 units under construction.
Robert Reynolds (right), a veteran advocate with AMVETS, walks with Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva as they tour the Veterans Row encampment along San Vicente Boulevard in November 2021.
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Getty Images
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Commercial leases
The appeals court ruling invalidated most commercial leases on the property, including Brentwood School's 22-acre sports complex and an oil company's drilling license.
However, the court overturned the district court's previous invalidation of UCLA's lease for its baseball stadium. Rosenbaum said he plans to refile that portion of the case, which had been argued on different grounds.
Reynolds criticized local leaders for what he said was inaction at the West L.A. VA Campus. He said local officials’ personal connections to Brentwood School and UCLA played a role.
“ A lot of these special interest groups on the VA land have so much influence politically in Los Angeles,” he said. "That's why you've had a lot of our politicians remain quiet about this."
In May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the VA secretary to declare the West L.A. VA campus a national hub for homeless veterans and develop a plan to house 6,000 people there by 2028.
That housing goal is even more ambitious than the court order, but local advocates say they haven’t heard anything from the Trump administration since it was issued.
“They need to speak to the people that actually live on that property,” Reynolds said. “I'm hoping now that we have this Ninth Circuit ruling in, that we'll be able to have some more discussion with the administration and with the VA leadership to try to figure out what the next steps are.”
As a result of this week’s ruling, the case has been sent back to the District Court judge to implement the housing order and oversee construction
