text: UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium was locked down at noon Thursday following an order by a federal judge who says the land should be used to house homeless and low-income veterans.
  Judge David O. Carter, an 80-year-old Marine veteran who served during the Vietnam War, ordered the Department of Veteran Affairs, which owns the land, to close the stadium and its adjacent practice field. The UCLA Bruins baseball team has played at the stadium, which is part of the VA's 388-acre West Los Angeles campus, since its dedication in 1981. The 22-acre ballpark was formerly Sawtelle Field, and UCLA has rented the land since 1963.
  Carter ruled the 1,838-seat stadium was inconsistent with the VA’s mission.
  The VA responded to the order, which came Wednesday evening as part of veterans' lawsuit against the department, by placing locks on all entrances, exit gates, and the practice field. The VA also posted no-trespassing signs.
  Carter ruled UCLA can’t enter the stadium until it provides a plan to use 10 acres of the site in a way that primarily helps veterans, according to the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper.
  UCLA says it will comply with judge's order
  In a joint statement Thursday, UCLA and UCLA Athletics called the order a disappointment, but said they would comply with it. The university said it hopes for “a swift legal resolution” that would allow its baseball players to return to the stadium.
  UCLA noted it “unequivocally supports” veterans.
  Veterans sue VA over West Los Angeles campus
  Carter's order came after a daylong hearing Wednesday in a non-jury trial in Jeffrey Powers, et. al, vs. Veteran Affairs Secretary Denis Richard McDonough, et. al. A group of unhoused veterans with disabilities sued the VA over its lease agreements for the West Los Angeles campus.
  UCLA Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt arrived at Carter’s courtroom at 7 p.m. Wednesday and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the judge to drop the order, according to the Los Angeles Times.
  Veteran rights advocate Rob Reynolds, who spoke to various media outside the stadium, said he’s fine with using land from UCLA to build housing for veterans if it means “veterans aren’t sleeping and dying on the streets,” according to the Daily Bruin. Reynolds is an Iraq War veteran.
  Veterans told ABC7 Los Angeles they would like to see the stadium torn down and replaced with housing.
  Carter's earlier ruling calls for housing for veterans
  On Sept. 6, Carter issued a ruling in the lawsuit in which he accused the VA of “turning its back” on veterans, according to ABC7. The judge ruled VA must end the leases of its West Los Angeles campus to UCLA, the Brentwood School, an oil company, and other private interests.
  He accused the West Los Angeles VA in his 125-page ruling of "being infected by bribery, corruption and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans' input about their own lands."
  Carter ordered the VA to build 1,800 permanent housing units for disabled veterans and 750 temporary supportive housing units at the West Los Angeles campus.
  The temporary housing must be finished within 12 months and the permanent housing within six years, according to Robins Kaplan, one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs.
  Previously the VA planned to build 1,200 housing units on the campus by 2030.
  Dave Mason covers East County for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at email@example.com or 805-437-0232.
  This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: VA ordered to lock down Jackie Robinson Stadium at UCLA