A federal appeals court this week upheld a federal district court ruling ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs to dramatically expand housing for unhoused, disabled veterans on its West Los Angeles campus.
In a decision filed Dec. 23, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the VA violated the Rehabilitation Act by failing to provide supportive housing for “unhoused veterans with serious mental illness or traumatic brain injuries,” according to documents in the case of Powers v. McDonough.
This violation, in turn, meant veterans were denied meaningful access to critical health care services, the judges ruled.