The West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center is among a network of housing, shelter, utilities, food preparation facilities and a hospital mandated to permanently serve Veterans at the West Los Angeles VA Soldiers Home. The approximately 400 remaining acres of the Soldiers Home is located adjacent to the West Los Angeles, Westwood and Brentwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, has its own ZIP Code and accounts for most of the over $1,100,000,000 Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System's annual federal budget. The West Los Angeles VA Soldiers Home is the first U.S. Government facility for

homeless Veterans Homeless veterans are persons who have served in the armed forces who are homeless or living without access to secure and appropriate accommodation. Background Many of these veterans suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorde ...

and the only one it permanently maintains in Public Trust to house them.

History

The medical facility, which sits on land donated by

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827–1912) was a wealthy Californio landowner and socialite of Los Angeles. She played an important role in the elite society of Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica. She was married to two wealthy Anglo-Ameri ...

in 1887, was previously known as the

Sawtelle Veterans Home The Sawtelle Veterans Home was a care home for disabled American veterans in what is today part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area (see Sawtelle, Los Angeles) in California in the United States. The Home, formally the Pacific Branch of the Natio ...

. This became the Wadsworth Hospital in 1927 and was rebuilt in 1977 into the present modern building. In 2011 a group of homeless veterans sued the center, claiming that the VA was renting land in the center for commercial gain and ignoring the needs of homeless veterans for housing. In 2015, as part of the settlement of the 2011 lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs released a draft master plan for the future of the campus. In 2016, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a plan to add 1200 units of housing for homeless veterans to the hospital campus. The LA Metro Purple Line is being extended from

Koreatown A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have ...

's Wilshire/Western station to the Westwood/VA Hospital station as part of the

Purple Line Extension The Purple Line Extension, formerly known as the Westside Subway Extension and the Subway to the Sea, is a new heavy-rail subway corridor in Los Angeles County, California, extending the D Line (Purple Line) from its current terminus at in Kor ...

. This station will be located north of the Hospital between Bonsall Ave,

Wilshire Blvd Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

and I-405. The station will open in 2027 as part of Phase 3 of the extension, along with Westwood/UCLA station.

Gallery

References

External links

Official VA West Los Angeles Medical Center website
{{authority control VA West Los Angeles Medical Center Veterans Affairs medical facilities VA West Los Angeles Medical Center

VA Medical Center The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the healthcare program of the VA through a nationa ...

VA West Los Angeles Medical Center

VA West Los Angeles Medical Center VA West Los Angeles Medical Center

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links