{"id":280176,"date":"2026-04-22T12:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280176\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:21:10","slug":"trumps-big-promise-for-veteran-housing-is-awol-in-va-budget-proposal-mystifying-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280176\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s big promise for veteran housing is AWOL in VA budget proposal, mystifying vets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Veteran advocates who welcomed President Trump\u2019s May executive order<\/a> calling for a new National Center for Warrior Independence in West Los Angeles now say they are mystified and disappointed by the budget produced by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to implement it.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a> said the VA\u2019s West Los Angeles campus would provide housing for 6,000 veterans by the end of his term. But the budget proposal<\/a> submitted to Congress this months does not request funding for a single new bed.<\/p>\n

Instead, the VA is asking for a $500-million appropriation to rehab six aging buildings, erect an 800-space parking structure and improve infrastructure on its sprawling campus spanning Wilshire Boulevard west of the 405 Freeway. It identified three other projects, including the rehabilitation of the historic but dilapidated Wadsworth Chapel<\/a>, that would be funded by redirecting $212 million from previous authorizations. <\/p>\n

The proposal comes as Trump is asking for a colossal $445-billion increase in the defense budget and spending billions every week on a deeply unpopular war with Iran. <\/p>\n

The proposal would require relocation of about 330 current residents in treatment programs while the four buildings housing those programs were being renovated \u2014 with no indication where they would be temporarily housed or for how long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that plan puts the well-being of veterans first,\u201d said Anthony Allman, executive director of Vets Advocacy, a nonprofit created to monitor court-ordered development of the campus. \u201cWe can create a plan that builds new facilities while not disrupting current treatment programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and others with stake in the future of the 388-acre campus saw a few upsides in the plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe chapel project is there, which is something we\u2019ve all been waiting for for a long time,\u201d Allman said.<\/p>\n

But the proposal was a letdown for veterans who were buoyed by earlier indications that Trump\u2019s order would break a logjam in the construction of hundreds of units of temporary housing ordered by a judge<\/a> last year, which have stalled since the VA appealed the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful for the executive order; I\u2019m hoping they follow through on it,\u201d said Rob Reynolds, an Iraqi war veteran who advocates for veterans seeking VA services. \u201cAt the same time, we are not seeing the request for funding to build the temporary housing, or to build the permanent housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The VA did not respond to questions from The Times.<\/p>\n

The overall effect of the proposal will be to displace veterans, not add housing, said a congressional staffer who is familiar with the issue but not authorized to speak publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have the funding and they don\u2019t have the expertise,\u201d the staffer said. \u201cThere is no plan. This budget is a reflection that veterans have been fed a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal faces a potentially tough review in Congress, where it could have to compete with other projects ranked as the VA\u2019s top priorities, including a $1.6-billion medical center in Indianapolis. <\/p>\n

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), whose district includes the West Los Angeles property, said that he had expected there would not be money in the budget for all 6,000 units, but that it didn\u2019t occur to him there would be none.<\/p>\n

Sherman said Congress could shift money from the $98-million parking structure to housing, but thought that unlikely with a Republican majority \u201cslavishly dedicated to whatever Trump says.\u201d<\/p>\n

In justifying the request for Los Angeles, the VA said the renovated facility would enable \u201cthe modernization of a growing campus which may expand up to 6,000 Veterans across assorted permanent and temporary housing units, medical center care, and unique program care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last year, the VA has sent conflicting signals on its plan for housing.<\/p>\n

In a court last year, the team working on the executive order said the VA had funding authorized in 2025 to install 750 to 800 tiny homes<\/a> on the campus by the end of this year. Facing criticism that the 8-by-8-foot sheds would not be acceptable housing, the VA issued a notice in January<\/a> seeking reaction from developers on a much more expensive project with temporary units of 120 to 390 square feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach unit will provide a bed, a bathroom with shower, a kitchenette with sink, microwave, refrigerator, and HVAC,\u201d the notice said. The plan included small courtyards and utilities.<\/p>\n

Installation would be in phases, with the first to be completed between June and August. The notice was not a solicitation for bids and did not say how the project would be funded.<\/p>\n

In a filing with an appeals court, the VA said that, regardless of the court\u2019s injunction, its policy was to construct 750 to 800 units of temporary supportive housing on the campus by September. But it has yet to issue a request for bids on any units. <\/p>\n

Those who took that as a hopeful sign now say their hopes are deflated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you don\u2019t see is what you don\u2019t see,\u201d said Mark Rosenbaum, attorney with the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel who is representing veterans in the class-action federal lawsuit seeking more housing. Rosenbaum said he was disappointed, \u201cbut sadly not surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern would be that they would come in and say we\u2019re going to put 2,000 in right away and they\u2019re going build one big tent,\u201d said Steve Soboroff, a real estate developer and civic leader who testified in the trial that decent modular housing could be built on the campus for about $120,000 per unit.<\/p>\n

Others said they didn\u2019t know what to make of the budget because the team planning the National Center for Warrior Independence has released only sketchy information on its plan and required those involved to sign nondisclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdmittedly we\u2019re left reading tea leaves because of the nondisclosures,\u201d said Allman of Vets Advocacy. \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody can be truly certain what VA is planning. Not even the VA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the projects outlined in the budget, it also appears that the VA has backed off from a plan detailed late last year to renovate two buildings<\/a> as a gathering place for veterans. <\/p>\n

The budget seeks no funds for that project and instead would turn one of the buildings into administrative space. It does not mention the other, a 1929 Art Deco landmark. A VA contractor has applied to the state for tax credits to turn it into housing.<\/p>\n

A contractor who attended the tour, speaking anonymously because of a nondisclosure agreement, said it appeared to him that the VA didn\u2019t have a plan and was \u201conly trying to figure out the lay of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran advocates who welcomed President Trump\u2019s May executive order calling for a new National Center for Warrior Independence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2076,2791,4110,120634,48,52,51,47,50,49,120635,15256,120636,3230,4975,6247,25062,1519,3226,29912,84161],"class_list":{"0":"post-280176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-campus","10":"tag-funding","11":"tag-judge-last-year","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-may-executive-order","19":"tag-notice","20":"tag-other-project","21":"tag-plan","22":"tag-proposal","23":"tag-request","24":"tag-temporary-housing","25":"tag-trump","26":"tag-unit","27":"tag-va","28":"tag-veteran-housing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}