New Documentary Follows LA Veterans Who Face Homelessness, Hopelessness and Hunger While the VA Fails to Act

The West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus is one of the largest VA campuses in the country, made up of around 388 acres. It was originally given to the federal government at the turn of the 20th century, a donation from a wealthy socialite to house veterans, and was once even a fully functional township with its own post office and trolley system. Along with the health-care services it provided, it once housed as many as 5,000 vets at its post-World War II peak.

Today, much of the land is unused, filled with dilapidated buildings left over from its glory days. The rest of the land is home to the West Los Angeles VA hospital, the Los Angeles National Cemetery and a few tenants that are now a center of controversy. Over the years, the VA rented the space to companies that have nothing to do with veteran care: Fox Studios rented storage space for its sets there, Marriott had a laundry facility for its hotels, and UCLA even built a baseball stadium on the land.

Meanwhile, homeless veterans are camped out in tents outside the facility grounds, prevented from making any kind of home on this land supposedly reserved for them. Rebecca Murga is an Army veteran filmmaker who recently produced "The Promised Land," a documentary about the facilities and the veterans trying to force the VA to live up to its motto.

"The general feeling among the veterans on the West LA campus is one of frustration and disappointment," Murga told Military.com. "Many feel that the VA is not doing enough or moving fast enough to address the growing needs. This country spends a lot of time and resources on military operations, but when it comes to taking care of veterans upon their return, there seems to be a significant disconnect and lack of urgency."

In 2015, the VA settled a lawsuit brought against it by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 10 unhoused disabled veterans. In the settlement, the VA agreed to build 1,200 units of housing, 770 of which were supposed to be finished by 2022 -- but none were completed. These days, a tent city of homeless veterans can be seen camped out in front of the VA grounds, a sight so familiar to Angelenos, it's become known as "Veterans Row." It turns out the 2015 ruling was not "court enforceable," leading the veterans to file a new lawsuit.

Fast-forward to December 2023, when Judge David O. Carter tossed out the federal government's efforts to dismiss the new lawsuit, setting the stage for a new trial that began on Aug. 6, 2024.

Rob Reynolds is at the center of the fight. He's an Army infantry veteran who served from 2006 to 2010. He served with the 10th Mountain Division in Baghdad, where he saw significant action during a time of civil conflict in Iraq. When he returned to civilian life, he struggled with substance abuse and was sent to the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. The VA turned him away because of his service animal; he slept on the street that night.

Reynolds has since emerged from being unhoused. Today, he's the de facto manager of Veterans Row, where he helps homeless veterans find work and navigate the VA benefit services to get the support they need. He's usually the first stop for the men and women on Veterans Row. Veterans such as Reynolds are the reason for the renewed effort to confront the VA in court.

"Rob is passionate about what he does, he cares deeply about the veterans he helps, but he is also a perfect example of a veteran who needed help at the VA but faced numerous obstacles," Murga said. "He has the patience to get through the long haul of a lawsuit and the resilience to see it to the end."

"The Promised Land" not only details the injustices and the indignities suffered by the unhoused veterans of Los Angeles. It also details the problems they face trying to get help. Many struggle with their wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder. Others don't qualify for the small number of temporary shelters that have been built, either because they have no income or too much income.

The documentary is one part of "Home of the Brave," a seven-part series about the VA campus from Long Lead, an independent studio that brings seasoned journalists, filmmakers, photographers and other storytellers together to create immersive, informative and in-depth journalism.

"What we wanted to do with this documentary is be able to give the veterans a voice," Long Lead founding editor John Patrick Pullen told Military.com. "As a journalist, there's levels of objectivity that you have to maintain. I really struggled with that because I'm not a veteran, but in hiring Rebecca, she was able to go in and add that veteran lens even though she is housed, and then immediately build the rapport with the subjects in the documentary."

Pullen also believes the story of West Los Angeles' veterans is too important to write about and then move on from. Murga's documentary is just one part of seven stories written about the West Los Angeles VA controversy. The other stories detail the history of the campus, the land deals the VA made with outside entities and the stabbing death of Andre Butler, an unhoused Marine Corps veteran whose murder touched off a renewed effort to force the VA to act. Most importantly, it will feature daily trial updates from celebrated court reporter Meghann Cuniff.

"It's just not fair to move on from this because it's an injustice, clear and simple," said Pullen. "So we wanted to leave a resource behind. ... We've stood up a newsletter so people can follow the veterans' fight for housing and receive court briefings from the trial. When the trial is done, she will take all of those briefs and convert it into a feature which we will then swap out on the website. ... It'll be a monument to what has happened."

As of this writing, the latest brief is from July 15, 2024, detailing a summary judgment from Judge Carter, who ruled "the VA has discriminated against veterans through its practice of leasing areas of the West LA VA campus to third-party developers who finance project-based housing developments through funding sources that require income restrictions for their residents."

"Reform needs to come from the top," Murga said. "The system has been slow, and we've had enough people come and have 'listening sessions' or photo ops, and the issue still stays the same. I hope the film inspires empathy and real action, encouraging leaders and government officials to advocate for better support and services for those who have served our country."

Viewers can watch Rebecca Murga's "The Promised Land" documentary, part of Long Lead's "Home of the Brave," for free right now.

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