The Veterans Administration has an enormous gated campus in West LA, the land donated long ago to the federal government on one condition: that it be used as a soldier’s home for disabled military veterans. Today on that campus, you can find an old chapel, a soccer field, a public dog park, and UCLA’s baseball field … but very little actual housing, even though LA has 4,000 homeless veterans, more than any other city.
In the second episode of City of Tents: Veterans Row, Anna Scott explains the connection between the broken promise of that rolling 388-acre VA campus and the formation of a homeless veterans’ camp right outside its gates. The veterans, the courts, and even the VA agree they’re entitled to live on the land. Why don’t they?
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Ep.1 Welcome to the Neighborhood