ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
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. NPR veterans correspondent Quil Lawrence is here to tell us about it. Hi, Quil.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What was this huge campus in West LA being used for instead of helping and housing veterans?
LAWRENCE: 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.
SHAPIRO: What did they win?
LAWRENCE: Well, the decision is 125 pages. It came out this morning, and I will admit I skimmed some sections of it. But the big issue is that those leases - the judge basically told UCLA and the Brentwood School that they have to end their leases of VA land, and that space, which amounts to about 30 acres combined of some of the world's most valuable real estate, has to be turned into housing for homeless vets. So...
SHAPIRO: Wow.
LAWRENCE: I mean, it's seismic. And then...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
LAWRENCE: Another part of the decision - I just got off the phone earlier with Rob Reynolds, who's an Iraq vet. He's been working this issue. He said the housing units that the VA has built on the campus - the contractors who set those up were counting VA disability as income. So some vets made too much money to get those units.
ROB REYNOLDS: 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, Quil, it's an absolute victory here today.
SHAPIRO: Absolute victory is a strong phrase. He sounds really happy.
LAWRENCE: Yeah. I mean, it's been so long working on this, I think some of them are in disbelief.
SHAPIRO: Tell us more about the reaction that you've been hearing since the ruling came down.
LAWRENCE: Yeah. The VA won't comment on ongoing litigation, but they did say that between last year and this year, there was a 23% reduction in veterans' homelessness across LA County. They did point to infrastructure upgrades that they've built and that they'll have nearly 500 housing units ready by January. But the court says they have to step that up by an order of magnitude and have 1,800 more units ready in 18 months.
SHAPIRO: Can the government appeal any of this, or is this really the end of this decadeslong fight over how the campus is being used?
LAWRENCE: Well, I spoke to the co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Mark Rosenbaum, today. He said he's hopeful.
MARK ROSENBAUM: If they try to unloose that injunction, we'll fight them, and we'll win. But my hope is that the government is going to say, enough. Let's all join together to make this happen expeditiously as possible. This case doesn't belong in the courts any longer.
LAWRENCE: So, you know, in the past, the VA did ignore this decision, they say. But this time, it seems like the forces are aligned, and there's just a lot of excitement.
SHAPIRO: Wow. NPR's Quil Lawrence covers veterans. Thank you.
LAWRENCE: Thanks, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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