Government Duty to House Veterans Weighed in Los Angeles Trial

A federal judge has called Los Angeles the “homeless veterans’ capital of the United States,” and says the US Department of Veterans Affairs has a “unique asset” that could fix the problem.

But after a weeks-long trial in the US District Court for the Central District of California, it’s up to him—Judge David O. Carter, a veteran himself—to figure out what comes next.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs owns a campus with hundreds of acres that has historically been used to house veterans near the VA’s West Los Angeles hospital. A class of unhoused veterans with serious mental illness ...