Legion provides input on future of West Los Angeles VA

The American Legion is pushing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to gather input from a broader cross-section of Los Angeles County as the October deadline approaches for the agency to detail how it will return its West Los Angeles campus to a veteran-focused mission.

VA and the Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis held a town hall meeting in El Monte last Thursday on VA’s forthcoming master plan for the West Los Angeles VA. It's the first time VA has solicited public input outside of West Los Angeles area, said American Legion Department of California Commander Larry Van Kuran.

Legion is part of a group of eight veterans service organizations (VSOs) that asked VA to extend the reach of the town hall meetings. “We’re pushing them to go father afield because a lot of the veterans they need to get input from can’t get to West Los Angeles,” Van Kuran said. “We told the VA, if you want to hear from veterans, you’ve gotta go where they are.”

The West Los Angeles VA is built on land given to the federal government in 1888 with the stipulation it be used to provide housing for disabled veterans. VA quietly ended that service during the Vietnam War, effectively pushing mental disabled veterans to the streets. Meanwhile, the agency leased more than 100 acres of the West Los Angeles property for a dog park, charter bus storage, a private school’s athletic center, a hotel chain’s laundry and UCLA’s baseball stadium among other private endeavors.

The ACLU sued the agency for violating the terms of the 1888 deed that transferred the land to the federal government. VA finally agreed to end those leases and provide housing for homeless veterans on its 387-acre campus and in other locations as a part of the lawsuit settlement earlier this year. The settlement also called for VA to produce a master plan for the campus by mid-October and take other steps to house veterans in Los Angeles County, which has more homeless veterans than any other metropolitan area in the United States.

Richard Valdez, past commander of the California Disabled American Veterans (DAV), met with VA Secretary Robert McDonald in January and told him that veterans service organizations must have a say in the planning process, Van Kuran said. As a result, several VSOs that inlcuded the Legion, DAV, VFW, AmVets, Vietnam Veterans of America, American GI Forum, Military Order of Purple Heart and Jewish War Veterans came together to work on the West Los Angeles plan. “Our association has agreed to, and actually is, actively speaking with one focused voiced,” Van Kuran says.

There’s a significant amount of ground to cover before genuine change takes place at West Los Angeles VA, including building housing for homeless veterans and then making sure the VA actually uses the buildings for that purpose, Van Kuran said. “We’re apprehensive because of the history with the VA here and across the country.”

Public Counsel, a nonprofit law firm that includes attorneys who filed suit against the VA, also is following the planning process closely.

“Our first conversation with VA Secretary McDonald included a proposal to recreate the veteran-centric vibrant community that existed there back in the day,” said UCLA law professor emeritus and Public Counsel pro bono attorney Gary Blasi, who has worked on homeless issues for more than 30 years. That includes providing long-term supportive housing for homeless veterans, particularly older veterans and veterans with chronic medical and mental health needs. Housing for women veterans, including veterans with children, is also a priority because of their high rate of military sexual trauma. “A lot of them are going to need services that are really only accessible at the West Los Angeles VA campus,” Blasi said.

Like Van Kuran, Blasi is impressed with the commitment by McDonald and VA leadership, yet wary of the mid-level VA bureaucrats who may be given responsibility for overseeing execution of the West Los Angeles plan. But the first step is making sure the plan actually improves prospects for veterans in Los Angeles.

“We will be looking to see whether it really addresses the needs of homeless veterans and whether it adequately addresses returning the campus to veterans-centric uses,” Blasi said. “And whether some of the ridiculous uses of the campus will be gone.”