Why are homeless veterans in LA being blocked from using Brentwood land donated for their shelter?

Jon Wiener, contributing editor for The Nation, tells Current TV’s John Fugelsang about an ACLU lawsuit involving a plot of Brentwood, Calif. land donated to the Veterans Administration specifically to house disabled veterans more than 100 years ago. The land is now used for a variety of purposes — the site includes both a parking lot and a dog park —while more than 6,300 veterans remain homeless in Los Angeles according to a Dec. 2012 Housing Department report.

“The VA says that while they have an obligation to provide medical care for veterans, they have no obligation to provide housing even though this lawsuit is about severely mentally ill vets who are unable to get the medical treatment they need unless they’re provided with housing on site, basically,” Wiener says.

“It seems like the main reason the VA doesn’t want to house homeless vets on the Brentwood campus is that it’s a very upscale neighborhood – these are multimillion homes sort of down the block, around the corner, and in L.A. the homeowners groups have immense power.”