VA Officials Rebuff Calls to House 4,000 at West LA Campus

Federal officials say they’re making major progress in housing unhoused veterans in the L.A. area, as they push back on calls by a federal judge and advocates to house 4,000 veterans at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ sprawling campus in West L.A.

“I think we want to be careful here not to essentially create new redlining, where the expectation is that all veterans who are formerly homeless are packed into the West L.A. campus,” said John Kuhn, the VA’s deputy medical center director for Greater Los Angeles, in an interview with LAist this week.

“Certainly the West L.A. campus is an important asset, and it's part of the solution. But our goal is to end homelessness. Our goal isn't to build as much housing as possible on [the] West L.A. campus and essentially create a ghetto for veterans,” he added.

The VA is committed to current plans for 1,200 units on the campus by 2030, added Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the nation’s top veterans health care official.

“We'll find every opportunity we can across the city and across the region to find permanent housing in the community,” said Elnahal, the VA’s national undersecretary for health.

Their comments come as the VA is in the midst of a legal battle with advocates who sued the VA in federal court to try and force the agency to more urgently build housing for disabled veterans.

Last month, the judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, handed a major legal victory to the plaintiffs when he rejected all of the VA’s efforts to toss out the suit. At the hearing, Carter repeatedly called for 4,000 homes to be built at the campus. He noted that number of veterans used to live on the campus decades ago.

The most unhoused veterans in the country

L.A. County is home to the largest population of unhoused veterans in the United States — roughly 4,000 as of January last year.

The VA’s current housing plans — stemming from a 2015 settlement deal — call for 1,200 apartments for unhoused veterans to be built on the campus by 2030.

So far, 233 have been built — all of which are now occupied following delays reported on by LAist last year, according to VA officials.

Veteran advocates have pushed for more to be built. Carter, the judge presiding over the case, has agreed.

“Why isn’t this a home, a campus again for up to 4,000 or 3,000 people?” Carter asked the VA’s attorney at a Dec. 14 hearing, when the judge rejected all of the government’s requests to toss the case.

“I'm looking for that leadership coming from the Veterans [Affairs] secretary or from this administration,” Carter said, repeating his request to house 4,000 people.

Veterans advocate says VA needs to do more

Veteran advocates like Rob Reynolds point out the VA has provided more housing on the campus in the past.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” Reynolds told LAist.

“In recent history, 4,000 veterans used to live on this property, roughly the number of veterans who are homeless in L.A. today,” he added.

“So I don’t see the reason why it’s not being returned to its former [scale]. There is plenty of space for housing.”

Kuhn, the VA official, told LAist that when 4,000 veterans lived on the VA campus, it was in conditions that wouldn’t meet modern safety standards.

“They lived in barracks style housing that frankly wouldn't pass life and safety inspections now, and no one would want to live in. People don't want to live in barracks. They want their own apartment,” he said.

“Our veterans deserve to live in their own apartment, in places that you or I would feel comfortable living in. Not in barracks-style housing,” he added.

“So the 4,000 units that maybe historically worked, is not — in the 21st Century — an approach that I … think anyone would be happy with.”

Reynolds disagreed, saying there’s enough space to build dignified apartments.

“Again, there’s 400 acres of land. There is plenty of room to build enough housing units for 4,000 to where it’s spaced out,” he said.

Much of the campus is already dedicated to a regional hospital for veterans and other services. But an LAist analysis found that if housing were built at the same current population density of nearby Santa Monica, 4,000 people could live on just over half of the campus’ 400 acres.

By the numbers

As the VA’s undersecretary for health, Elnahal oversees health care for all of America’s veterans. The VA’s health operations are the largest healthcare system in the United States.

He and Kuhn cited significant progress in getting veterans housed, with 1,790 veterans housed in the L.A. area last year — up from 1,301 the prior year.

But even as many veterans get housed, the overall number of veterans on the streets has climbed as more people fall into homelessness.

For example, the January 2023 homeless count for L.A. County found a 12% jump in unhoused veterans since early 2022 — even though the VA reports about 1,300 local veterans were housed during that time frame.

“Our team is using every resource at their disposal to place more and more veterans into permanent housing,” Elnahal said.

“All of our teams throughout Greater Los Angeles are leading the way on this, as they should, because the need is significant in Los Angeles,” he added.

VA officials say they’ve worked to improve L.A.-area initiatives like better coordinating services for veterans, and on-demand emergency shelter where the VA calls an Uber ride to help veterans quickly get indoors.

“We're looking at every possible approach to really get a grip on this, and help people stay out of homelessness and find housing if they become unhoused,” Kuhn said.

Kuhn and Elnahal acknowledge there’s still a lot more work to do.

What will the new count show?

At a 2014 event with then-First Lady Michelle Obama, L.A.’s mayor at the time — Eric Garcetti — pledged to end veteran homelessness in the city by the end of 2015. He backed off the pledge in 2015, with his spokesperson citing a “significant change in the scope of the problem.”

As of last year, the number of unhoused veterans was nearly as high as it was in 2015, according to the official counts.

Last week, volunteers and officials fanned out across L.A. County for the annual point in time count of unhoused people. A few months from now, those numbers are expected to be released publicly, showing how many veterans — and non-veterans — are living unhoused.

Last year, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass warned the overall number of unhoused people may be even higher this year than last year, as more people lose their housing.

VA officials told LAist they’re hopeful their efforts to house more veterans will be reflected in this year’s count, but that Bass’ warning is prudent amid L.A.’s affordable housing crisis.

“There is a huge shortfall of housing,” Kuhn said.

“I certainly can understand Mayor Bass' concerns. We are in the midst of a national affordable housing crisis, and there's no question there are significant headwinds that we face as we try to reduce and end homelessness among veterans,” he added.

Kuhn said the VA currently has no official timeline for ending homelessness in L.A. — something he said is realistic as the housing crisis exacerbates the situation.

“I would love to be able to advance timelines and give you a prediction of when we're going to end homelessness among veterans. The reality is there are, of course, macroeconomic conditions that we have no control over,” Kuhn said.

“It's absolutely a goal to end veteran homelessness across the country,” added Elnahal.

“We will not stop, and we will continue to resource this effort and support it across the country until we meet that goal.”