UCLA, the private school Brentwood and a parking company are collectively paying only about $2.3 million a year to lease land with a market value of more than $48 million on the Department of Veterans Affairs campus in west Los Angeles, the Trump administration concluded in a new report.
The report, filed Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, signals a shift in the VA's opposition to parts of a federal judge's ruling last year that voided those leases and ordered about 2,500 temporary and permanent housing units to be built on the 388-acre campus.
The VA appealed the ruling, but after holding a hearing in April, the appeals court has not yet issued a ruling. In May, President Trump issued an executive order calling on the VA to provide housing for 6,000 people on campus, a dramatic escalation of the district court order.
In a cover letter to the appeals court, Justice Department attorney Daniel Winik did not suggest that the VA drop the appeal, but described the report as an update, “informed by the executive order.”
Trump's order, while stating that the VA was leasing property “to a private school, private businesses, and the University of California, Los Angeles baseball team, sometimes at significantly below market rates,” did not specifically address whether the leases violated the West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016 that governs the use of VA land.
The report, which was also presented to the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Friday morning, said the VA's comprehensive review and reassessment has “revealed that leases invalidated by the U.S. District Court … may well fail to comply with the WLA by failing to primarily benefit veterans and their families or, in the case of UCLA, by failing to provide services to veterans as the predominant focus of UCLA's overall activities on campus during the lease.”
It detailed preliminary findings “based on considerations of highest and best use of leases and a review of relevant data on land sales and land leasing.”
The conclusion was that annual fair market rents would be $30,269,500 for just over 22.06 acres leased by Brentwood School for its athletic facilities, $12,306,500 for 10.09 acres leased by UCLA for its baseball stadium, and $5,888,000 for 3,896 acres leased by SafetyPark Inc. for two parking lots, a total of $48,464,000 combined.
“However, as of September 2024, VA received a combined total of $1,719,360.84 in annual rent from the leases,” an amount less than 5% of the estimated market value.
Brentwood School's lease called for rent of $850,000 annually with a 2.5% increase every three years, according to the report. UCLA paid $320,844 in nine months.
Brentwood School provided in-kind services through the use of its facilities and activities for veterans, all valued at $918,000 annually. UCLA provided services through a family resource center and a mental health and addictions center, he said. In both cases, according to the report, the VA was unable to verify whether the services were provided or whether the assessment was accurate.
Brentwood School issued a statement Monday saying it seeks to ensure its relationship with veterans and the federal government continues to grow to meet the comprehensive needs of veterans. Since Oct. 1 alone, the school said, it has served more than 3,000 meals to veterans in various programs, taught classes such as computer skills and forklift certification, and offered movie nights and fitness classes.
The UCLA athletics department and SafetyPark did not respond to requests for comment.
Mark Rosenbaum of the pro bono law firm Public Counsel, which represents the veterans in the class-action case, said he had not yet decided whether he would file any response to the 9th Circuit, but supported the report's conclusion.
“Even as it understates the case, the report confirms the district court's decision that our government should provide housing to all veterans so they can access the medical services they desperately need,” Rosenbaum said. “With a little luck, [Tuesday] “It will be the last Veterans Day where there will be homeless veterans on the meanest streets of Los Angeles.”
After receiving the report, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) sharply criticized the VA and tenants, particularly UCLA.
“It is clear that the VA has been grossly underpaid for leasing land that could have been used to directly benefit veterans,” Bost said. “Instead of paying market rate in Brentwood, California, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the country, the University of California, Los Angeles has used baseball tickets, tailgates, kayaking and a legal clinic that was not open when homeless veterans needed its services most to pay for its baseball stadium on VA-owned land.”
Anthony Allman, executive director of Vets Advocacy, a nonprofit group that monitors implementation of a master plan for VA campus development ordered in a previous lawsuit, said focusing on rent could distract from the issue of how to get the greatest benefits for veterans.
When construction of long-planned campus housing was delayed by funding hurdles, he asked why tenant funds couldn't be used to pay for new construction.
Two maps attached to the report gave the first public release of an action plan to create a National Warrior Independence Center requested in 120 days at Trump's order.
The first map identifies buildings being planned and developed to provide 2,000 new beds in a first phase. The second map does not include specific details, but shows the use of Brentwood School and UCLA properties, as well as a Los Angeles city park, to reach 6,000 beds in phases two and three. No timelines or details about specific buildings were included.
“It's a paint by numbers, not a plan,” Allman said.
The first map, he said, is consistent with the master plan already in place, while the second map is just a concept: “It doesn't tell you how you're going to get there.”
