Four retirees from the top US military leadership, including the admiral who led the attack on Osama bin Laden, submitted a brief denounced the US Department of Veterans’ Office of Veterans’ negligence of homeless veterans in Los Angeles as a “direct threat to national security.”
Retired Admiral Michael G. Mullen, former chairman of the Co-State Chief of Staff, and William H. McClover, who led the attack in Pakistan, signed a summary filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, demanding that the VA build thousands of residential units on the West Roth campus.
They were joined by two other high-level Army retirees, General Peter W. Chiarelli, who oversaw the Army’s 1.1 million activities and reserves as deputy chief of staff, and Colonel David W. Sutherland, a specialist assistant to the co-headed, who was in charge of supporting warriors and families.
Several groups of veterans submitted short orders separately in favor of the order. The Vietnam Veterans and four VVA branches of the California State Assembly, the amvets division of California, and the military order of Purple Heart.
The VA plans to add an order from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter to provide 750 units of temporary support housing on campus within 18 months, and add up to 1,800 units of permanent housing within six years.
Carter also disabled large chunks of campus leases to UCLA and Private Brentwood School. Following pressure from judges, K-12 Academy has agreed to a new lease that would expand veteran access to the 22-acre aerial facility.
The lease and a quick effort to open around 100 of these units this spring, part of the UCLA baseball stadium parking lot was put on hold when the ninth circuit left Carter’s order. In its appeal, the VA said that losing control of the lease authorities would make it “irreparable harm.”
The hearing is scheduled for April 8th.
Veterans’ lawyers submitted a simple 65-page enforcement dissecting the fines of the US Rehabilitation Act, and the nature of the government-controlled fiduciary duty under the gift of 1888 on a 388-acre campus for the “establishment, construction and permanent maintenance” of the home for disability sellers.
The retired brass instruments and veteran organizations have added emotionally charged supplements to their legitimate documents.
The four former officers raised the prospect of weakening the military as they faced one of the most challenging recruitment crises since. [all volunteer forces] It began in 1973.
“The United States has protected the smallest military since the end of World War II when the complexity and scope of three global threat environments (the range of southern Europe in the Middle East) is the high water mark,” they write.
They consider a decline in enlistment due to loss of confidence in the government’s commitment to caring for disabled veterans at a time when military service is linked to “war trauma that leads to physical and psychological harms such as PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and increased risk of suicide.”
“If the VA does not respect its obligation to provide support housing on the WLA VA campus, recruits will see illnesses and homelessness waiting for them on the other side of the battle,” they wrote.
“The failure of the VA to reintegrate disabled and homeless veterans is to undermine the veterans themselves, the best source of the military for recruitment. …Veterans are often among the military’s most effective recruiters, especially in their families. …But only 63% of veterans recommend that they enroll in the military, a 12-point drop since 2019.”
Veterans organizations claimed that veteran homelessness has been on the decline, but has been exacerbated by the recent Pallisard and Eaton fires.
“The fire indicates that losses can come quickly and unexpectedly for veterans and that more housing is needed,” they write.
Citing census data, they estimated that 250 veterans lost their homes in the Eton fire, and that 170 people lost in the Palisade fire.
Accepting that not all evacuated veterans will become homeless, they wrote, “We guarantee that some, and perhaps many, will do so, as it has significantly worsened the affordable housing crisis in the Los Angeles area.”
The VA did not respond to emails requesting comment.
“The disastrous conditions that urged the district court to grant injunctive relief have only been exacerbated,” they wrote. “The court should affirm the verdict.”
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