A Bureaucratic Mix-Up Blocked Disabled Veterans From Housing. That’s Changing After LAist Asked Questions

Veterans with disabilities can now move into 19 new apartments built for them, officials say, after LAist’s reporting cleared up a bureaucratic mix-up that prevented people from moving in for months.

The apartments at the West L.A. Veterans Affairs campus were among those declared “move-in ready” at a highly publicized event in early May featuring top government officials.

More than two months later, LAist learned the 19 units were among about 80 apartments sitting empty due to paperwork issues and communication problems. For the 19 units, Veterans Affairs officials said they still needed a final disability inspection by the city before anyone could move in.

We asked city officials about it — including L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office and Ann Sewill, who leads the city of L.A.’s Housing Department.

Sewill’s office said the buildings got temporary approval back in April and the inspection hasn’t been a barrier for move-ins at the 19 apartments since then.

She followed up with an email to VA officials and its contractors last week to make that clear. The email, reviewed by LAist, said disability inspections haven’t been a barrier since April 3, when the temporary approval was granted.

Sewill’s email has cleared the way for veterans to move into these units, according to the nonprofit group Step Up On Second Street, which manages the move-in process for veterans and is in charge of services for the new VA apartments.

As of Monday, about six people are scheduled to move in so far to the 19 units, said Aaron Criswell, who oversees Step Up’s housing work.

“As long as their paperwork hasn’t expired, they can move in as soon as they’re ready,” Criswell said.

He said the rest of the 19 apartments can be filled once individual veterans’ paperwork is together.

“We’re glad that this is all moving forward in a positive direction,” said Sharon Sandow, spokesperson for the city’s Housing Department, on Monday.

As for the about 60 other vacant units, the vast majority remain empty, according to information Criswell provided.

What caused the communication problem?

It’s still not clear why the mix-up wasn’t sorted out in the months before LAist asked questions, given the disability approval was in place back in early April. Criswell said he couldn’t speak to it because he wasn’t directly involved in those communications, and VA officials haven’t responded to questions about why they misunderstood the situation.

LAist also asked VA officials last week if any one person is in charge of the veteran housing efforts at the campus, which involve coordinating between at least five different local and federal agencies. No answer has been provided yet.

“There definitely needs to be someone that can be accountable to how this process works to get veterans in,” said Rob Reynolds, an Army veteran who for years has been advocating for more housing for veterans at the VA campus.

“You [often] have all these different entities — whether it be the housing authority, or the developers, or the VA — pointing fingers at one another.”

Reynolds said he saw a stepped-up effort by officials to help veterans get their paperwork together in the hours after LAist’s article published on Thursday, involving two of the veterans he knows.

Hearing about that level of effort in one morning is “not something I’m normally used to,” he said.

Criswell, the Step Up official, said he didn’t know whether any additional effort was underway that day, but that the nonprofit has a team working every day to help veterans with the steps they need to take to get into the new apartments.

Step Up staff and government officials, he said, are moving as fast as they can, but that it would move faster if the VA provided more social workers to help locate veterans and assist them with the paperwork.

Campus was given to government for veteran housing

The massive 400-acre West L.A. VA campus was gifted to the federal government in the 1800s specifically to house former soldiers. At its peak, about 5,000 veterans lived on the campus during the Korean War.

But Congress later dismantled the VA’s housing system, shifting the agency’s focus to health care and cemeteries.

VA officials in West L.A. eventually leased out much of the campus for non-veteran uses, including a laundry facility for Marriott hotels, athletic facilities for a private school, a private parking lot, and a UCLA baseball stadium.

But with the West L.A. land specifically designated for veteran housing, and rising homelessness among veterans, the ACLU sued in 2011, saying the leases for non-veteran uses were illegal. A federal judge agreed, and the VA eventually settled the case, promising to build 1,200 units of housing on the campus.

But the promise wasn’t enforceable by the courts. And progress was slow, with the VA’s inspector general finding in 2021 that the agency was years behind schedule.

A new lawsuit — filed last year — seeks to get the VA to move faster at honoring its housing promises. VA officials say they’re working as fast as they can.

The 19 new apartments are among 120 units that were renovated and announced as available for veterans at the grand opening event back in May.