The alleged failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide stable housing to veterans suffering from severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental disorders leaves many of them facing homelessness, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in California.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order the VA to use empty buildings on its sprawling West Los Angeles Medical Center campus to provide permanent supportive housing for a class of veterans who suffer from conditions that the plaintiffs argue require a stable home environment for successful treatment.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who include several Los Angeles-area homeless veterans and the group Vietnam Veterans of America, said the case, if successful, could have broad implications for veterans’ care nationwide.
“This case could be brought anywhere in the country there’s a homeless vet,” said Mark D. Rosenbaum, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California. “There should be no such thing as a homeless veteran in America.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/suit-ties-va-to-plight-of-homeless-veterans/2011/06/08/AGJGh9LH_print.html
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