VA will seek to end homelessness in Los Angeles through 387-acre property: settlement

VA will seek to end homelessness in Los Angeles through 387-acre property: settlement

The VA was sued in 2011 for allegedly leasing out its facilities to non-government entities while homeless veterans slept on the streets.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has reached a settlement that will create a large West Los Angeles campus that will serve as permanent housing for homeless veterans.

The VA will also stop the practice of leasing its facilities to corporations and other entities. Under the plan, the VA will appoint a national homelessness expert by October to come up with a master plan for using the property, which spans 387 acres, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Authorities could renovate existing VA buildings as well as built new facilities for housing, drug treatment, mental health counseling, and other services to support veterans.

Under the terms of the settlement, the VA will work with legal opponents to create plan by Feb. 13 that would seek to end homelessness among veterans in the Greater Los Angeles area, focusing on individuals who are female, aging, disabled, and chronically homeless.

The government must also look into an exit strategy for those who lease VA facilities for uses that have nothing to do with caring for veterans, such as the baseball stadium for UCLA and a storage area for studio sets.

This usage is what led about to a 2011 lawsuit accusing the VA of attempting to collect revenue from paying tenants while veterans were left to fend for themselves. The settlement will result in the dismissal of that lawsuit.

It is estimated that Los Angeles County is home to 4,200 homeless veterans.

The ACLU Foundation of Southern California in Los Angeles brought the lawsuit in 2011 along with others, arguing that the VA had been misusing the campus and failing its duty to care for veterans. A federal judge ruled in 2013 that the VA indeed been wrong to lease land for purposes that had nothing to do with healthcare, prompting the VA to appeal the ruling.

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