LA homeless veterans win decades-long fight with VA

[Bekeart]

LA homeless veterans win decades-long fight in new court ruling

A federal judge in Los Angeles has handed homeless veterans a major victory in court.
The West LA Veterans Campus, which has been used for things that have nothing
to do with veterans for decades.

Story dated September 6, 2024 5:29 PM ET

LA homeless veterans win decades-long fight in new court ruling : NPR

A federal judge in Los Angeles gave homeless veterans a major victory in court today
in a decades-old fight over the West LA veterans campus. LA consistently
has the most unhoused veterans in the country.
Paradoxically, it also has a unique solution - a 387-acre campus sitting partly empty
in one of the country's most expensive ZIP codes.
It was donated as a home to Civil War veterans in 1887.
But in this century, the land was leased out by the VA and used for things that have nothing to do
with veterans.

Well, today a judge said that needs to change.

I'm not sure you'll believe me, some of these things. I mean, there's a golf course.
There's a bird sanctuary. There is an old-school pumping oil well on the campus.
In the past, there have been a lot of shenanigans, including some criminal activity,
leasing out some parking lots, things like that.
But the biggest tenants, really, are leasing land there. UCLA's baseball stadium is on the campus.
And the elite private Brentwood School is on the campus.

So there are thousands of vets living in the streets in LA, and veterans' groups
have been asking for decades, why couldn't that building -
why couldn't that area hold veterans, homeless veterans?
And the VA settled a lawsuit in 2015 with an agreement to do that,
but the plaintiffs say that wasn't enforced.
So they sued again in a class-action suit on behalf of disabled veterans,
and it looks like they've won.

The VA has been counting veterans' disability compensation as income.
So the more disabled a veteran is, the less likely they are to qualify for housing.
And the judge found that that was discriminatory.

And, it's an absolute victory here today.

This deserves large easy to read type -30-

 

[Bekeart]

What did the VA do with the lease money ? ?

How much was paid to VA for the lease of space for the UCLA Football Stadium??

How much was paid to VA for the lease of space for Brentwood School??

How much of the lease payments were used to aid Vets?

Bekeart

 

[Farmer17]

Homeless people are everywhere around OKC and few years ago you didn't see very many. Theft is very high for things like copper tubing, a dental office I was building last year was broken into and the thief got enough medical gas tubing to get maybe 50 bucks at the scrap yard. There are lots of homeless around the area at night and they are found sleeping in the morning in office building entrances. It cost me $23,000 in repairs and the insurance company paid for most of it but then I had another copper theft six months later and I paid for those repairs myself because I was afraid my insurance company would drop me. The people are are building little camps everywhere and leave trash all over the place and it's like being homeless and asking for handouts at intersections has become a popular and acceptable alternate lifestyle.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Homeless people are everywhere around OKC and few years ago you didn't see very many. Theft is very high for things like copper tubing, a dental office I was building last year was broken into and the thief got enough medical gas tubing to get maybe 50 bucks at the scrap yard. There are lots of homeless around the area at night and they are found sleeping in the morning in office building entrances. It cost me $23,000 in repairs and the insurance company paid for most of it but then I had another copper theft six months later and I paid for those repairs myself because I was afraid my insurance company would drop me. The people are are building little camps everywhere and leave trash all over the place and it's like being homeless and asking for handouts at intersections has become a popular and acceptable alternate lifestyle.

It sounds like "Veterans" are the owners (they need a little help administering their property) and can afford to get a roof over some peoples heads, maybe a soup kitchen, and the trash picked up!

When you treat people like trash, after a while they start thinking of themselves that way. I supervised maintenance for a Non-profit that housed the homeless. It is amazing how quickly humans become feral living under the bridges. With time, most can come back with a helping hand (but the drug use needs to be curtailed!)

Ivan

 

[Doug M.]

The more I hear about the VA from people who interact with it, the more I think of heads and pikes.