A California appeals court judge expressed concern Tuesday that a ruling ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs to build housing for homeless veterans on the grounds of the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center would be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, during oral arguments, Judge Consuelo Callahan, the presiding judge on a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, said "it's hard to say the VA has done a good job" of meeting the needs of the estimated 3,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles.
The appeals hearing was the latest in a legal battle between veterans and the VA on whether the campus in LA will be cleared of tenants and used to build housing for the homeless. The VA is appealing a judge's ruling last year that it must construct 1,800 units of permanent housing for disabled and homeless veterans on the 388-acre grounds.
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Callahan noted that the 1888 deed for the West LA VAMC land called for its use to be solely for the "benefit of veterans and their families," and added that "I struggle with how some of the things that the VA did benefited veterans at all."
Justice Department lawyer Daniel Winik, representing the VA, argued that the department had a "master plan" for aiding homeless veterans, but Callahan said, "I'm not really persuaded by your argument."
However, Callahan also said that District Judge David O. Carter may have exceeded his authority in issuing an injunction voiding leases on the West LA VAMC land for the UCLA baseball team and several other tenants and directing the VA to build 1,800 units of new housing.
Callahan, a Republican appointed by former President George W. Bush, noted that the Trump administration was pressing to limit the authority of district judges to issue injunctions on a range of cases involving birthright citizenship and diversity programs. She said that she had to take into account "what the Supreme Court would say" about a ruling by the Ninth Circuit.
Callahan added that she was reluctant "to be reversed by the Supreme Court."
The case, Powers v. McDonough, was brought by homeless and disabled veterans represented by the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel with the main intent of forcing the VA to build and service housing for veterans on the West LA VAMC grounds.
After a 16-day bench trial, then-80-year-old Carter, a Marine veteran of Vietnam who was severely wounded in the battle of Khe Sanh, ruled that the VA must honor its obligations under the original 1888 deed to provide housing and health care to disabled homeless veterans on the campus.
To that end, he ordered the VA to build 1,800 permanent housing units for disabled veterans on the West LA campus within six years, along with 750 temporary supportive housing units to be completed within 12 to 18 months.
In February, retired Adm. William McRaven, a former Navy SEAL, and two other retired four-star officers joined the lawsuit against the VA by filing a brief arguing that the failure of the VA to address the housing needs of veterans posed "a direct threat to national security."
McRaven, who as head of Joint Special Operations Command oversaw the 2011 raid by SEAL Team 6 that killed Osama Bin Laden, and the others said in the brief that the "adverse health effects of military service have intensified in recent years" and eventually will effect recruitment and retention unless the VA moved to address the needs.
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