A New Judgment on Housing for Disabled Veterans

In response to a federal judge’s ruling regarding housing for disabled and homeless Veterans on the West Los Angeles VA campus, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, The Veterans Collective is pleased to see that Judge David O. Carter appears ready to take on the institutional barriers that have slowed the delivery of housing for thousands of homeless and at-risk veterans and families on the West LA VA Campus. His order clearly identifies how restrictions attached to federal, state and local funding make critically needed supportive and affordable housing slow to develop, and inaccessible to those who need it most.

While we are proud that more than 500 new housing units will be available for homeless veterans on campus by next year, we share the Judge’s belief that the timeline is far too slow. We continue to do our part to free this project from many public restrictions, including securing more than $100 million in charitable contributions through our Veterans Promise Campaign and working with VA, which has allocated more than $350 million in unrestricted VA PACT Act funding to advance development. But that is not enough. To deliver the permanent supportive housing that LA Veterans deserve, we call on Congress to enact Representative Brad Sherman’s “Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans Act (HUDVA),” which will eliminate veteran disability income from the HUD income calculation and ensure that Veterans most in need of housing at the VA are eligible for HUD-VASH and other programs at the West LA VA. We are working to advance this and other legislation at the federal, state and local levels to ensure that LA veterans who need housing most can receive it at the West LA VA.