Trump Administration Report Finds Underpaid Land Leases

UCLA, the Brentwood School and a private parking operator are paying pennies on the dollar to lease prime West Los Angeles land from the Department of Veterans Affairs that federal officials believe should be used to house homeless vets.

The three tenants collectively pay about $2.3 million a year for roughly 36 acres on the VA’s 388-acre West L.A. campus, which a new federal report values at more than $48 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. The findings mark a sharp turn in the VA’s position on leases a federal judge voided last year for violating a 2016 law requiring the campus to primarily benefit veterans.

The Brentwood School pays $850,000 annually for its athletic complex, or less than 3 percent of the 22 acres’ approximately $30.3 million market rent. The University of California, Los Angeles’ baseball team plays at Jackie Robinson Stadium and owes roughly $12.3 million at market rates for its 10-acre lease but paid only $320,844 over nine months before its lease was invalidated last year. SafetyPark Incorporated, which operates parking lots on-site, paid less than $600,000 for nearly 4 acres with a market rental rate of nearly $5.9 million. In total, as of September 2024, the VA claims it received just $1.7 million in annual rent from the three leases, making up less than 5 percent of the estimated market value.

As part of its agreement with the VA, the Brentwood School was required to provide in-kind services through the use of its facilities and veteran activities at an annual value of $918,000 annually; school officials claim it provided more than $1.8 million in the year ending last September. The school issued a statement Monday committing to preserving its relationship with veterans and the federal government.

UCLA, meanwhile, says it provides services to veterans through a family resource center and a mental health and addiction center on top of its monthly rent of $25,000 for Jackie Robinson Stadium. “Over the years, UCLA has provided millions of dollars in services and benefits to our veterans at no cost. Unfortunately, as a result of the judge’s ruling, UCLA was prohibited from accessing the property for a period of time,” a spokesperson for the university told the Times, saying the university hopes to resolve the issue quickly to continue “realiz[ing] the full benefits of this long-standing partnership.”

Lawmakers and veterans’ advocates blasted the arrangement with the leaseholders, calling it a misuse of public land in one of the nation’s most expensive ZIP codes.

“It is clear that VA has been dramatically underpaid for renting land that could have been used to directly benefit veterans,” Rep. Mike Bost, chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said of the arrangement.

The Trump administration’s report comes after a May executive order from the president directing the VA to build 6,000 housing units on the site, an expansion of a prior court mandate for 2,500 units.

— Chris Malone Méndez