Santa Monica Throws its Weight Behind ACLU Lawsuit Against Local VA

By Ann K. Williams
Lookout Staff

June 16, 2011 – The City of Santa Monica has signed on in support support of the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU's) lawsuit against the Veterans Administration West Los Angeles (VA WLA) for failing to provide supportive housing for homeless mentally disabled veterans.

The City Council passed a motion Tuesday night to provide the ACLU with evidence supporting its case, and to look into the possibility of participating legally, either by joining the ACLU's lawsuit or by filing an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief.

Council member Bobby Shriver, who brought the motion before the Council, said that the lawsuit “showed that many important lawyers in the community felt that we had waited long enough for the regular political processes to go forward.

“The City of Santa Monica has been trying to work with the VA for years to expedite the use of facilities on that property that are now empty, that were built originally for veterans who had suffered mental illnesses in the course of their combat experience,” said Shriver.

“We have been unable in the time that I have been working on this, seven years now, to create one additional new bed on that 400-acre property for these severely compromised people,” he said.

Since his campaign for city council in 2004, Shriver has been an outspoken advocate of providing housing for homeless veterans at the VA WLA and is credited as a driving force behind the ACLU complaint, filed last week.

The complaint alleges that homeless veterans suffering from severe mental illness brought on by their wartime service are unable to get the treatment they need while living on the streets, and that the VA WLA is obligated by the conditions of its 1888 land grant to house them.

Although the VA WLA provided veterans housing until the 1970's, the buildings they lived in were emptied and it now leases its property to private entities, including a car rental agency and a laundry.

How many homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area need supportive housing, Council member Bob Holbrook asked Shriver.

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority figures were just released raising the number of homeless veterans at more than 8,000, Shriver answered. Of those roughly half are estimated to suffer from PTSD and half of those suffer from severe PTSD, he said.

“The proportion of people returning from the newer wars – the Iraq and Afghanistani wars – will be higher than that, that's been the experience elsewhere in country,” Shriver said, adding that women who have seen combat have their own treatment needs, and that supportive housing for them may include housing for their children.

In addition to providing data to bolster the ACLU's case, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie explained how the city can participate in the lawsuit.

The city can file an amicus curiae brief, which amounts to “a third party chiming into a lawsuit that their interests will be affected by,” Moutrie said.

Or it might want to go further and join the ACLU in its suit.

“The city may have standing to intervene, become a party in the lawsuit, because when the VA does not shoulder its responsibilities to assist homeless veterans, they may end up in Santa Monica receiving services in this city and that impacts us,” she said.

Shriver told the council he's heard from several cities in the region, including the City of Los Angeles, who want to know what Santa Monica is going to do and whether they can work with us.

The motion for city staff to assist the ACLU by providing data and evidence, and to explore legal participation in the lawsuit passed by a unanimous voice vote.