Citing veteran homelessness ‘emergency,’ judge orders housing built faster at VA campus

A federal judge this week ordered a much faster timeline to add homes for unhoused veterans on the sprawling West L.A. VA campus, directing officials to add dozens of pre-built tiny homes before winter and hundreds by spring. It comes amid a brewing showdown between the judge and UCLA over his shutdown of the university’s baseball stadium there.

“This is an emergency. It's as simple as that. It demands our attention every single day until we reach an agreement or an impasse,” U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said at a hearing Monday where he issued the new orders.

“I'd minimally like to see a start and break this iceberg, if you will, of getting some kind of housing in immediately for the veterans,” he added, saying he wants housing up before the rainy season.

What he ordered

Following up on a broader ruling last month following a trial, Carter issued two emergency orders Monday to speed up the creation of temporary “modular” housing on the campus — essentially, tiny homes that are built ahead of time in factories.

One order requires the VA to hire a vendor within 30 days that would install 50 homes within a month and a half of being hired, and install 200 to 300 homes within 120 days of being hired.

That puts the outer time limits at late December for the first 50 units and early March for the rest of the 200 to 300 homes.

The order dramatically accelerates the pace that VA officials are required to build housing under Carter’s previous order last month. That ruling requires 750 temporary homes on the campus within 12 to 18 months and an additional 1,800 permanent homes there within six years.

The second order Carter issued Monday requires VA officials to provide him with information by this Friday to help decide where temporary homes can be built on the campus. Specifically, he ordered information on what kind of utilities — like water and power — exist on several parcels of land there, including UCLA’s baseball stadium.

Carter said he would be holding daily hearings in the case.

“We're in continuous session now,” he told attorneys in the case on Monday. “I hate to be the downer on this, but I will be sitting here each and every day.”

Showdown with UCLA

In his ruling last month, Carter also found that federal Veterans Affairs officials had a series of illegal leases on the campus — specifically, UCLA’s baseball field, the private Brentwood School’s athletic facility, an oil drill and a private parking lot.

He ordered the baseball field closed off, until UCLA comes up with a plan that he’s satisfied primarily benefits veterans, as federal law requires for leases on the land.

UCLA then proposed to nearly double the rent it pays the VA — to $600,000 per year — and show the judge how UCLA offers free and low-cost healthcare to veterans.

That didn’t sway Carter, who has not accepted UCLA’s request to re-open the field.

Things escalated on Monday.

UCLA’s attorney filed a notice with Carter that the university was appealing Carter’s shut down of the stadium. It’s the first known time an appeal has been filed in the two year-old lawsuit.

UCLA hasn’t yet filed its arguments for why the appeals court should overturn Carter’s order. It’s not due until late December, according to the court’s online records.

After being informed of it at Monday’s hearing, Carter said UCLA didn’t follow the proper procedure to appeal.

Earlier in the hearing, Carter asked if UCLA had an attorney at the hearing, and no one spoke up.

“They don't attend hearings that have an effect on them. I find that difficult and wonder why they aren't constantly here,” Carter said.

He called the university “complicit” and “not innocent,” pointing to what he described as UCLA getting to use the land “literally for free up until the 1990s” and past findings from a federal inspector general that the lease was illegal.

At a previous hearing on Friday, Carter told lawyers in the case that he wouldn’t be focusing on the leases if VA officials find land elsewhere on the 388-acre campus for the housing he’s ordered.

“As long as it's represented to me [by the VA] that I've got limited space on this campus — until somebody comes up with enough room for an additional 1,800 and 750 [units], then I'm looking at UCLA and I'm looking at Brentwood and I'm looking at every single piece of property,” Carter said.

Carter is both a veteran of the Vietnam War, and an alumnus of UCLA’s law school.

The fate of Brentwood School’s athletic facility

While Carter ruled last month that the Brentwood School’s athletic facilities were under an illegal lease, he indicated Monday he was close to accepting a deal for the school to keep using them.

Under the proposed deal, the school would pay $5 million to support veteran services, and expand the hours of the day when veterans can use the facilities.

There were, however, a couple of sticking points as of Monday.

One was who would get to decide how the $5 million is spent.

The plaintiff’s attorneys want Carter to decide.

But the VA’s lawyers said federal law requires any money raised in connection with the campus be paid to the VA to manage. The plaintiff’s attorneys said the VA has shown it cannot be trusted to properly manage funding.

The other sticking point was when the millions would be paid. The school wanted to wait until the overall lawsuit reaches its final conclusion and all appeal opportunities are over, while the plaintiff’s attorneys say that could take years.

They both agreed that a major roadblock to reaching a deal around Brentwood school is that the VA’s lawyers won’t say if they plan to appeal Carter’s rulings in the case.

Carter pressed the VA’s lawyers on who was making decisions about the VA’s actions in the case.

“I mean, who's the wizard behind the curtain here? Can anybody share with me?” the judge said.

“This is frustrating,” he added.

Without naming names, the attorney representing the VA said decisions are made after being sent “up through the chain” at the U.S. Department of Justice and the VA.

Background on the case

The lawsuit was filed in November 2022 on behalf of unhoused veterans with disabilities. 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’s next

Unless Carter’s orders are overturned or changed in some way, federal officials are now required to follow through on it.

It remains to be seen whether the Biden Administration will appeal Carter’s rulings in the VA case.