| West Los Angeles VA Medical Center | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | 11301 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90073, Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 34°3′0″N118°27′9″W / 34.05000°N 118.45250°W /34.05000; -118.45250 |
| Organization | |
| Type | Veterans |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Lists | Hospitals in California |
TheWest 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 theWest 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. Operated by theVeterans Health Administration, the West Los Angeles VA Soldiers Home is the first U.S. government facility forhomeless Veterans and the only one it permanently maintains in public trust to house them.
The medical facility, which sits on land donated byArcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker in 1887,[1] was previously known as theSawtelle Veterans Home. 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.[1][2] In 2015, as part of the settlement of the 2011 lawsuit,[3] the Department of Veterans Affairs released a draft master plan for the future of the campus.[2]
In 2016, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a plan to add 1,200 units of housing for homeless veterans to the hospital campus.[4]
TheMetroD Line is being extended fromKoreatown'sWilshire/Western station to the newWestwood/VA Hospital station, as part of Section 3 of theD Line Extension. This station will be located north of the hospital between Bonsall Ave.,Wilshire Blvd. andI-405, and will open in 2027.[5]
A portion of land of the center has been leased by the VA to external organizations for purposes unrelated to veterans affairs, includingUCLA for a baseball stadium,Brentwood School, a television studio for storage, and a laundry service. A series of lawsuits beginning in 2011[6] has argued these leases defy the conditions of the 1887 land donation fromArcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker andSenator John P. Jones stipulating that the land be used as"...a branch home for disabled volunteer soldiers..."[7]
Besides the hospital, other sites of interest at West Los Angeles VA Soldiers Home and adjacent federally owned, unincorporated land in the area ofSawtelle,Westwood andBrentwood:
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