A group of Jewish military veterans is being evicted from their meeting place on the West L.A. Veterans Affairs campus.
Matthew Millen is the commander of Jewish War Veterans Post 118, a Santa Monica-based organization that meets a handful of Sundays a year in a boardroom on the sixth floor of the VA hospital in Brentwood. Millen said he was blindsided by a letter from the VA that arrived last month.
“We are writing you with respect to your organization’s use of the above referenced building and room within the [West Los Angeles] campus,” it began. “The Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking alternative use of the space currently occupied by your organization…to further assist Veterans specifically on-site.” Signed by Lori Moore, Associate Chief of Asset Management with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, the letter gave the Jewish War Veterans 30 days’ notice that they are not longer welcome to use the room.
“It was surprising. We’ve been meeting there for six years. I didn’t understand it,” Millen said. “The meetings are on Sunday mornings. No one is utilizing this room on a Sunday morning.”
The decision to evict the group comes at a time when land use at the 388-acre West L.A. VA is under a microscope.
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