Trump Orders VA to Build Housing for Veterans in West LA

President Donald Trump has sided with military veterans in their battle to force the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build homeless housing at its West Los Angeles campus.

The president signed an executive order directing the VA to create a center for homeless veterans with up to 6,000 homes at the 388-acre West L.A. VA Campus at 11301 Wilshire Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Trump ordered VA Secretary Doug Collins to prepare an “action plan” to build the homes at the newly named National Warrior Independence Center by Jan. 1, 2028.

The order comes at a critical juncture after a barrage of lawsuits, court decisions and appeals over the VA’s oversight of the campus.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to decide soon on a federal judge’s ruling that the VA had failed a fiduciary duty to provide housing for vets.

After a trial last year, Carter ordered the VA to immediately build 100 temporary housing units on campus parking lots and plan to add more than 2,000 units of permanent and temporary housing within six years.

He also invalidated four leases of VA land to the University of California, Los Angeles. and a K-12 private school.

The VA appealed the decision to have the department foot the bill for the building of emergency veteran housing, arguing the cost would irreparably harm other services to veterans. Its appeal was joined by UCLA, the Brentwood School and oil producer Bridgeland Resources.

The immediate effect of Trump’s order on the case was unclear.

In a lengthy preamble, Trump’s executive order alluded to the closing of veterans’ housing in the 1970s and improper leases of veterans’ land in Los Angeles that led to the two lawsuits against the VA.

“The campus once featured a chapel, billiard hall, 1,000-seat theater, and housed about 6,000 veterans, but the federal government has since allowed this crown jewel of veteran care to deteriorate over the last few decades,” the presidential order said.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs leased parts of the property to a private school, private companies, and the baseball team of the University of California, Los Angeles, sometimes at significantly below-market prices.”

As part of the action plan, Trump ordered the secretary of Housing and Urban Development to consult with Collins on using “vouchers to support homeless veterans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and around the nation.”

Trump’s order also required an action plan to expand the Manchester VA Medical Center in New Hampshire to a full-service medical center “so that it is no longer the only state in the contiguous United States” without one.

The initiative comes during proposed cuts by the Trump administration to VA staffing that have sparked criticism from Democratic lawmakers of widespread disruptions across the agency’s healthcare system, according to the Times.

— Dana Bartholomew