The Brief

At the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus, Army veteran Josh Petit gestures toward a cluster of about 50 “tiny homes” that sit on an unpaved chunk of land on the 387-acre expanse.

They’re cramped but, says Petit, “I think it’s a blessing compared to what was here before, which was nothing.”

Petit, a 6-foot-2 vet who served in Iraq, struggled with substance abuse for many years and has been in and out of homelessness for nearly two decades. He’s now sober and recently moved into one of these small 8-by-8 foot dwellings on campus.

Petit says the showers are ice cold and the toilet and sink are so close he can hardly sit down. But after living in a tent encampment in front of the VA — known as Veterans Row on San Vicente Boulevard — he says this is a welcome step up.

“I was infantry in the Army. I’m used to being in the mud, in the muck,” he explains. “Gimme a place with electricity and an AC, I'll sit in there and be happy with it.”

The 'homeless veterans capital of the country' 

Nearly 4,000 U.S. veterans live without permanent housing in L.A. County, according to a 2022 report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Once deemed the “homeless veterans capital of the country,” L.A. has had more unhoused veterans than any city in America.

Red tape and an overly complex administrative process paired with years of illegal mismanagement of the West Los Angeles VA land have left those who have served our country forced to wage a new battle to secure housing and benefits when they finally return home.

Like so many other veterans, Petit, 42, has lived through years of instability, fighting for promised benefits through the VA since his return from war. “I've met many veterans out here that had devastating things happen to them,” Petit says.

Josh Petit is an army veteran who's experienced homelessness for years. He is awaiting a spot in newly constructed apartments on the West LA VA campus

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Michael Flores

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The tiny homes where Petit now lives were constructed in 2021 as a quick fix for moving people out of Veterans Row. They were always meant to be temporary, but most veterans in the dwellings have no idea when — or if — they will qualify for permanent housing. And even if they did, they would have to trudge through seemingly endless paperwork, office visits and an application process that could last years. For some, it never ends.

“You have instances where people are sitting for a year in a tiny home when they should already be in housing,” said Rob Reynolds, an advocate for unhoused veterans.

Reynolds, who served in Iraq and was unhoused himself for some time after he was discharged, says he’s most concerned about veterans who are severely disabled or suffering from mental health issues and can’t advocate for themselves.

“This work has been absolutely taxing and frustrating,” he says about his daily mission to get services for veterans. “It takes so much to get very small things accomplished.”

Apartments behind schedule … and unfilled 

In May, the VA opened up 233 units in three newly renovated buildings to house veterans on the massive West L.A. campus, operated by the Veterans Health Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The new apartments are a response to a 2011 lawsuit alleging the VA was illegally renting the land to private interests and not delivering on its mandate to house veterans.

But the VA is running about four years behind schedule and hundreds of units short on that promise. (By 2022, the VA was supposed to have built 770 units). And still many of the new apartments that are available remain empty because of all the bureaucracy laid out above.

“There’re many roadblocks for a lot of us,” Petit says. “If the VA had been doing what they should have been doing, none of this would have happened.”

U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough and other officials celebrate the grand opening of 120 new apartments for unhoused veterans at the VA's West LA campus on May 2, 2023. Two months later, most of the apartments were still empty.

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West L.A. campus

For years, the West L.A. campus — gifted to the VA in the 1800s to house former soldiers — has been riddled with controversy. There was the 2011 lawsuit after which a judge ruled the VA misused the campus by leasing land for hotel laundry, a film studio storage lot and UCLA’s baseball stadium. In 2018, a VA employee pleaded guilty to taking bribes from a private parking lot company that was leasing land at the campus. In 2021, a VA office Inspector General report found that many of the leases on campus were in violation of the VA’s legal obligation to house and support veterans.

“The VA catered to those entities over veterans' needs,” says Rob Reynolds.

And last November, 14 veterans filed another suit demanding the VA speed up the renovation of the abandoned buildings that have long dotted the massive landscape and stick to its promised timeline for the new units.

“The phrase ‘homeless veteran’ should be an American oxymoron,” the lawsuit states. “But this is the cruel truth — the federal government consistently refuses to keep its word and take meaningful actions to bring the abomination of veteran homelessness to an end. The VA remains a principal cause of continuing homelessness among veterans.”

In response to questions about the delays, the VA has cited environmental impact studies, the need for infrastructure upgrades and lack of funding to complete the construction.

“Would we have liked to build these units sooner?” says John Kuhn, Deputy Medical Center Director of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. “Of course, everyone is interested in getting as much housing developed as fast as possible.”

The roadblocks 

Beyond building delays, getting approved to live in these units can be a challenge. Missing or incorrect details in any of the paperwork can disqualify veterans, requiring them to restart the process all over again.

Veterans who are “severely mentally ill, severely disabled … will show up here, have no identification, no paperwork, and then they have to go through this whole process again that can take three to six months,” Reynolds says.

Perhaps the most frustrating roadblock is the issue of income limit restrictions. Many veterans struggling with mental or physical health issues receive disability compensation that exceeds the Area Median Income for affordable housing, disqualifying them from many units reserved for veterans.

“So the cruel irony here is that the most disabled veterans — the ones that would benefit the most from living at the VA — are being told they can't live at the VA,” Reynolds says.

Veterans and their advocates say a lack of direct communication between local officials, like L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, and veterans themselves has delayed the process further.

But Bass says she is committed to getting vets housed.

“I have been very much involved in these issues along with other categories of homeless people as well,” Bass told LAist. “In terms of speeding up the building, I've been very dismayed by that. If we can get the flexibility in some of the rules, we will be able to house a lot more.”

Bass also said she is currently working at the federal level to push the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to shift these policies regarding income caps and consider veterans’ specific needs.

Still, veterans say they don’t feel heard.

“Just talk to us,” Josh Petit said. “I mean, we’re veterans, if we don’t bond with you, we’re not gonna work with you.”

Edward’s story 

“I fought in Afghanistan, I’m 70% disabled,” says Edward Sotelo, a formerly unhoused veteran now living on the West L.A. VA campus. “Why should I have to fight for my service connection back here?”

Sotelo, 36, recalls waiting three months for a first appointment with the VA a number of times. With no luck getting benefits, he alternated between crashing on friends’ couches and living on the streets after he was discharged from Afghanistan more than a decade ago.

Edward Sotelo is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. He just got a new apartment on the West LA VA campus after being on and off unhoused for almost a decade.

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Eventually, he got into a VA rehabilitation program that helped him stay sober long enough to get the housing application filed correctly. But injuries Sotelo sustained in Afghanistan rendered him 70% disabled — he now says he struggles with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury — and his disability payments put him above most of the income caps on the new units at the West L.A. VA.

“I had lost hope at that time period,” he says. “I honestly thought what I was going through was a life sentence.”

But in May, after an excruciating, decade-long journey — the paperwork, bouncing between agencies, waiting years to get into rehab and therapy to stay sober — Sotelo finally found an apartment on campus he qualified for, only after the income limit was lifted. He now has keys to his own place.

Along with high-quality amenities in the apartment, which are “beautiful and modern,” Sotelo says, he’s also taking college courses at Santa Monica College and is enrolled in therapy through VA benefits.

“There are miracles that can happen within this space,” he says, his eyes lighting up. “But I had to go find it all myself. What about the guys out there that can't do that? Who are not able to protect themselves?”

‘Any day now, I’m hoping’ 

As for Iraq vet Josh Petit, he’s still waiting for his turn to move into one of the new permanent units on campus. He’s been living in his tiny home for more than a year and a half.

“My mental health has been greatly improved, from where I was out on San Vicente sticking a needle in my arm,” he says. “It’s not what we deserve, but it’s a step up from the tents.”

He says having his own shower, even a tiny one hovering over the sink, helps him to maintain his hygiene. This allows him to regularly see his family, including his 17-year-old daughter. “I just don’t want to lose my family,” he says, tearfully.

Whether or not he will soon be transferred into one of the newly constructed units as promised remains unknown.

“They said I’m in one of the new buildings,” he tells us. “So any day now, I’m hoping.”

On a tour of Orange County’s voting headquarters on Wednesday, Registrar Bob Page demonstrated the careful, multi-step process through which voters’ ballots are validated and counted.

As the federal government raises the specter of unsubstantiated voter fraud, Page’s message was clear: “ I want voters to know that we're doing everything we can to make sure they can vote safely and securely."

More than 380,000 Orange County ballots have been returned as of Oct. 27, Page said. That’s about 80,000 more ballots than was received around the same time in 2022, the last mid-term elections.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page addresses the media and other members of the public in attendance as part of a tour of the voting operations on Wednesday, less than one week before Election Day.

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The journey of a ballot in Orange County

Collecting, and counting, all those ballots takes time. Page explained that two-person teams are dispatched to collect dropped-off ballots every day during election season.

The ballot drop-off boxes in Orange County are made of steel, weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are bolted to the concrete, Page said.

The ballot retrieval duos are required to follow a strict process to ensure the chain of custody remains secure, including taking photos showing they’ve picked up the ballots, properly locked the retrieval door and that the internal fire suppression canister is intact.

The locations of the two-person teams are GPS-tracked by separate teams, which also review the photo evidence before giving the ballot retrieval duos the green light to go to their next stops.

An overhead camera shows the process that occurs after the signatures on a ballot have been verified and the ballot is then ready to be counted.

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Kavish Harjai

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Signature verification

Once a ballot reaches the Registrar of Voters’ office, the next step is ensuring the signature on the envelope matches the voter's signatures in their registration file.

“If we do challenge [a signature], we’re required under state law to send a first-class letter notice to that voter,” Page said, adding that state statute affords voters until the day before Thanksgiving this year to correct errant signatures.

Page said three election workers must agree that enough of a discrepancy exists before the decision to challenge a signature is made.

Around 1.9% of the nearly 718,000 vote-by-mail ballots returned in the June primary election in Orange County were rejected, largely due to signature mismatch or because they weren’t received in time, according to the California Secretary of State.

Verified ballots are then separated from their envelopes and sorted before they’re prepared to be scanned and, finally, counted. The equipment used to tally votes isn’t connected to the internet, and access to the room the equipment is housed in is limited, according to Page.

Threats from the federal government

On Wednesday evening, a federal judge denied an emergency request from the Department of Justice to segregate 20,000 ballots across California that the federal government said were sent to “likely” noncitizens.

More than 1,750 of those people identified were in Orange County, according to a letter Bill Essayli, top federal prosecutor for the Central District of California, delivered to the county registrar’s office Monday.

The Department of Justice said it will appeal the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, who, in his decision, said the federal government’s attempted move could “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway.”

California Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta called the ruling an “important victory,” but warned “the fight is not over.”

On Wednesday, before the ruling came down, Bonta released resources about election integrity in the state, including guidance for local election officials if law enforcement attempts to “access election sites where ballots are cast, processed, or counted.”

Page said he’s fielded more questions from the public this year about the potential for law enforcement to interfere in the election. He said he will have open lines of communication with partners with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and  Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center should the threat arise.

What’s on your ballot?

Our LAist Voter Game Plan is here to help guide you through the Nov. 3 election with guides to races across Los Angeles and Orange counties — and that long list of state propositions — to help you cast a ballot that’s in line with your own personal beliefs and values.

But the one thing we don’t do? We don’t tell you how to vote. That part is left up to you.

You can find it all at LAist.com/Vote.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration.

The Associated Press obtained copies of three subpoenas sent Oct. 21 to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, ordering them to appear in court on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The documents request any records, documents and communications related to letters sent in July and October by federal officials to state election officials outlining allegations of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The subpoenas also seek information relating to the office’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens” and anything about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.

The subpoenas were being issued by all four U.S. attorneys in California, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar, said, “threats and intimidated have no place in elections.”

Subpoenas come amid ongoing court battle

The Trump administration has sued to force California to set aside up to 20,000 ballots it suspects went to noncitizens and not count them until citizenship can be verified. A district court judge on Tuesday rejected that request, then on Thursday appointed a special master to evaluate the administration’s claims.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter did not specify the exact scope of special master Daniel B. Garrie’s responsibilities, but said he would be tasked with “developing the factual record” for the court.

In a Tuesday court hearing, Carter said he wanted to vet the federal government’s list of over 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters since there has been extensive debate over its reliability and both sides have agreed that it includes an unspecified number of citizens.

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Carter also said at the hearing that a special master could investigate California’s claims that it cannot logistically separate the ballots in time for the county election certification deadline on Dec. 3. The federal government has contested that assertion.

It is not clear what would happen if a special master did find a substantial number of noncitizen voters on the federal government’s list or whether it would affect the certification of California’s election results. The 20,000 people on the DOJ’s list constitute only a small fraction of California’s 23 million voters.

Trump administration appeals to higher court

Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to quickly weigh in.

The Justice Department said in a late Wednesday filing that it’s essential the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issue a ruling as soon as possible due to “irreversible ballot processing occurring on an ongoing basis.”

Carter’s decision was the latest legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to expand federal control over state-run elections in the midterms that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term. The Justice Department has made similar demands in other states, including Washington. Noncitizen voting has been a central focus of Trump’s political messaging for years, although available data indicates it is exceedingly rare.

Trump blasted Carter’s ruling against the federal government on Thursday morning before heading to a campaign rally in South Carolina.

“California is very corrupt. The elections are extremely corrupt. The judge should not have done that but we’ll appeal that, of course,” he told reporters. Trump added without evidence that there are “hundreds of thousands” and then amended it to “millions, in my opinion” of “bad ballots” in California.

Carter, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, argued that the Justice Department’s demands were a clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits changes to voter rolls or election procedure within 90 days of an election.

A number of US citizens were included in the Justice Department’s list of names

Both sides agree that an unspecified number of citizens were inadvertently included. Carter argued that separating the ballots at this point would risk disenfranchising citizens and “wreak havoc” on the election certification process.

Over 500,000 votes have already been processed in Los Angeles County alone, according to court filings. The system also protects voter privacy: Once a vote is processed, it cannot be traced back to the person who cast it.

Carter is to rule on the government’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the state from counting the ballots until the litigation is resolved. He said he will do so after a Nov. 13 evidentiary hearing with input from the special master.

He said that if the federal government suspected noncitizens were voting, it could continue to prosecute those cases criminally. Federal authorities have charged over two dozen foreign nationals in California as part of a statewide sweep targeting people officials allege have illegally registered or voted in U.S. elections.

Appeals panel judges have said they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots this close to midterms

The appeal will be the second time that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the case.

The first time was just last week when the Justice Department argued before an appeals court panel that a fast ruling on its request was needed to stop any counting of the ballots.

Although the panel ruled it was premature for an appeals court to get involved before a lower-court ruling, two of the three judges wrote separate concurrences making it clear they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots at this late date. They questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s list of alleged noncitizen voters and argued that to set aside votes risks disenfranchising citizens.

One judge dissented, arguing that federal law bars noncitizens from voting and requires California to vet the potentially illegal ballots before counting them. The failure to do so, he wrote, would cause irreparable harm to the election.