The Brief

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has said it plans to appeal a federal judge's decision to have the department foot the bill for building emergency veteran housing at the West L.A. campus.

Brad Rosenberg, the department's attorney, said in court Friday that the appeal will be filed next week. Part of it will argue that the payment will cause irreparable harm to the V.A.'s funding.

But U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said that for now, the construction must continue.

"Until I get a stay from the Ninth Circuit, we go forward," he said, adding that he wants quick work to bring veterans indoors before the rainy season.

On Sept. 6, Carter ruled on a lawsuit on behalf of veterans with disabilities, issuing two emergency orders to speed up the creation of temporary “modular” housing on the campus — essentially, tiny homes that are built ahead of time in factories.

Carter continued to pressure officials on speeding up the timeline for the temporary housing. Kelly Farrell from the architectural firm Gensler, which is working on the housing plans, said they're still narrowing down specifics for utilities to meet housing standards.

Carter pushed back.

"We can truck in showers. We can truck in toilets. We can get sewage overland, you don’t have to trench," he said. "You’ve already got lighting in the stadium for goodness sakes. I don’t want perfect — I want good."

Background on the case

Carter has ordered the creation of 2,550 additional housing units for unhoused veterans — including 750 temporary homes with supportive services within 18 months at the sprawling West L.A. Veterans Affairs campus, and construction of additional 1,500 permanent homes with services at the campus within the next six years.

The judge also ruled against a series of private leases on the West L.A. campus, writing that VA officials “are prohibited from executing and maintaining any land use agreement, including those identified by this Order, that does not principally benefit veterans and their families pursuant.”

He also banned the VA from entering into new leases with the private Brentwood School (whose athletic facilities are on the campus), Safety Park (which operates two parking lots on the campus), Bridgeland Resources (which has an oil drill on the campus), and UCLA (whose baseball stadium is on the land).

The lawsuit was filed in November 2022. It came after the VA got years behind schedule in following through on a previous settlement deal from 2015 to build more housing at the campus.

What judge Carter had to say

VA officials bowed to wealthy neighbors: Noting that VA officials had entered into lucrative land deals for portions of the property, Carter wrote that instead of serving veterans, "the West LA VA has served its wealthy and powerful neighbors, bowing to private interests backed by lobbyists and engaging in back-room deals and fraud.”

A contrast with funding for war: Carter, a Marine Corps veteran who was so injured in a Vietnam War battle that he was put in a body bag, said the federal government has failed those who served: “Veterans have seen the government swiftly deploy its resources to send them into conflict, then claim an inability to overcome funding shortfalls and administrative hurdles when they need shelter and housing back at home.”

Judge cites corruption: “Over the past five decades, the West LA VA has been infected by bribery, corruption, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans’ input about their own lands,” the judge wrote.

Among other things, he pointed to a scandal in which a private parking lot operator pleaded guilty to bribing a VA official and stealing $13 million in connection with a lease at the campus.

Failed promises: Carter faulted the current and previous two presidential administrations for not following through on promises to end veteran homelessness. He wrote: “In the years since 2011, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, and the Biden administration have each promised that they would act swiftly to eradicate veteran homelessness in America. Yet, today, approximately 3,000 homeless veterans live in the Los Angeles area alone.”

What the parties had to say

Plaintiffs' response: Mark Rosenbaum, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told LAist the ruling is “an enormous victory” for unhoused veterans. He said the judge, through his ruling, is saying “no veteran who served this country should be on the streets of Los Angeles or, frankly, the streets of this nation.”

“It’s the end of veteran homelessness,” Rosenbaum added.

VA response: In a statement from Damian McGee, director Los Angeles Regional Office of Public Affairs, the VA said "there is nothing more important to VA than ending Veteran homelessness, and our efforts have led directly to a 23% reduction in Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles in 2024 and a 55% reduction in Veteran homelessness nationwide since 2010."

"The court exceeded its legal authority, and its orders would prevent VA from fulfilling our mission to end Veteran homelessness by diverting critical resources from efforts that are proven to get Veterans off the streets and save lives — including VA health care, permanent housing support, legal assistance, job training, and much more," the statement added. "This would negatively impact Veterans and their families, both in LA and across America, and VA is beginning the appeal process to prevent that from happening."

LACMA’s first Van Gogh isn’t a painting of blue flowers, golden wheat fields or aged faces. It’s of a parked stagecoach, and it’s considered a good example of what made the Dutch painter, and the Impressionist movement he was a part of, so revolutionary.

The painting is called “Tarascon Stagecoach.” It was painted in 1888 and was donated to LACMA earlier this year by the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation.

It’s LACMA’s first Van Gogh painting, and the encyclopedic museum will be showing it off starting Sunday in a show called “Collecting Impressionism at LACMA” that focuses on 100 works from LACMA’s collection. The works are arranged chronologically to show the evolving tastes that have shaped the museum's collection of Impressionist art.

The museum’s acquisition isn’t just a win for the museum. The museum-going public and the region’s teenage and college-age students also will benefit.

“I very much remember seeing Van Gogh in a rotunda space in the [Philadelphia Museum of Art] and finding it to be just so striking because of these luscious, bright colors,” said Summer Sloane-Britt, who saw her first Van Goh during a middle school visit to the museum.

Sloane-Britt now is a professor of art and art history at Occidental College.

“Visual analysis and seeing objects in person is always so core to historical learning and for studio artists as well,” Sloane-Britt said.

And seeing a Van Gogh in person, Sloane-Britt said, and saying you don’t like it is also OK because that signals the work has led you to identify and assert your own aesthetic tastes in art.

Van Gogh road trip in LA. Shotgun!

The LACMA exhibit presents a good opportunity to get on the road for a four-stop Van Gogh road trip without leaving L.A. County.

Van Gogh's "Irises"

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Courtesy Getty Museum

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You can start at LACMA and see “Tarascon Stagecoach,” benefiting from the context of seeing other impressionist works by Van Gogh’s contemporaries.

Hop over to the Hammer Museum in Westwood, where you’ll see “Hospital at Saint-Rémy,” one of three paintings by Van Gogh in the collection.

Then head west on Wilshire Boulevard to the Getty to see “Irises,” one of the paintings that’s made Van Gogh an art star.

"The Mulberry Tree," a painting by Vincent Van Gogh, on display at the Norton Simon Museum

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Courtesy Norton Simon Museum

)

End your Van Gogh road trip by heading east to Pasadena to the Norton Simon Museum. The museum’s smaller, more intimate setting is a good place to see the museum’s six, yes six, Van Gogh paintings.

The exhibit also will feature the newly acquired work "The Artist’s Garden, Vétheuil" by Claude Monet.

The new year doesn’t just bring new gifts and new resolutions. It also brings new laws.

State and local lawmakers have a lot on tap for 2026 when it comes to housing laws that will affect Southern California renters and landlords.

From refrigerators to fire damage, from development streamlining to rent control caps, LAist has rounded up the legal changes coming next year that you need to know.

AB 628: No more ‘no fridge’ apartment listings

Starting Jan. 1, landlords must provide tenants with a working refrigerator and stove. Many landlords already offer these appliances, but the L.A. area stands out nationwide for having an unusually high proportion of fridge-less apartments.

Next year, L.A. newcomers will no longer be taking to social media to express incredulity at all the city’s bring-your-own-fridge apartments. If landlords fail to provide refrigerators or stoves in good working condition, apartments will be considered uninhabitable under the new law.

SB 610: Landlords must clean smoke damage

In the weeks and months after the January fires, many renters struggled to get their landlords to address toxic ash that blew into apartments and rental homes that remained standing. Some landlords said cleaning up the smoke damage was not their responsibility. Initial communication from local public officials was confusing on what tenants were supposed to do.

This new law, which partially was driven by LAist’s reporting, clarifies that in the wake of a natural disaster, “it shall be the duty of a landlord” to remove “hazards arising from the disaster, including, but not limited to, the presence of mold, smoke, smoke residue, smoke odor, ash, asbestos or water damage.”

SB 79: Upzoning LA neighborhoods near transit

L.A.’s City Council voted to oppose it. Mayor Karen Bass asked the governor to veto it. But California’s big new upzoning law passed anyway. Its changes are set to take effect July 1, 2026.

Under the law, new apartment buildings up to nine stories tall will be allowed next to rail stations, and buildings up to five stories tall will be allowed within a half-mile of rapid bus stops. This upzoning applies to neighborhoods within those transit zones, even if they’re currently zoned only for single-family homes.

Next comes the implementation. The law could give renters more options once new housing is constructed. But L.A. could choose to delay the law’s effects in some areas for years. Ahead of the law’s passage, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto sent legislators a letter opposing the bill, signaling what could turn into a legal showdown over the bill.

AB 246: Protecting Social Security recipients during government shutdowns

Tenants can face eviction three days after missing their rent. During this year’s federal government shutdown — the longest on record — that swift timeline was a cause for anxiety among tenants who count on federal benefits to cover their rent.

Though this year’s shutdown did not affect regular Social Security payments, this law will give Social Security recipients a defense in eviction court if they ever stop receiving benefits because of any future shutdowns. Under the law, renters will be required to repay their missed rent, or enter a repayment plan, within two weeks of their Social Security payments being restored.

Lower rent control caps in the city of LA

After years of debate, the L.A. City Council passed a new cap on annual rent hikes in the roughly three-quarters of city apartments covered by local rent control rules.

The City Council enacted a new 4% limit, replacing a 40-year-old formula that allowed increases as high as 10% in some units during periods of high inflation. Councilmembers also ended a 2% additional increase for landlords who cover tenants’ gas and electricity costs.

The city had a nearly four-year rent freeze in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that ended in February 2024. That means many L.A. tenants are scheduled to receive their next rent hike Feb. 1, 2026. They should be getting a 30-day notice soon. Each year’s limit is determined by recent inflation data. The current cap of 3% is set to last until June 30.