Veterans and their advocates in southern California, the epicenter of veterans’ homelessness, are angry that President Obama and the Veterans Affairs Department have not built a single bed for homeless disabled veterans on the 400 acres the government owns in West Los Angeles, property that was deeded to the federal government for that very purpose in 1888.

They are right that Mr. Obama and the Veterans Affairs secretary, Eric Shinseki, have nothing to show for their promises to tackle the problem. But then neither did presidents named Reagan, Bush and Clinton, nor the long string of Veterans Affairs secretaries who served under them.

The campus has a hospital and outpatient services, but no long-term supportive housing for the desperately ill men and women who live and die on the streets, abandoned by the government they served. The circle of blame is wider than the executive branch.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the veterans department of dereliction of duty. Some of the department’s defenders, however, see things differently. Jim Nicholson, the department’s secretary under George W. Bush, is pointing a finger at Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat of California, in whose district the campus lies. Mr. Nicholson said last week, “Waxman’s been a congressman there for nearly 40 years” but has done nothing about the problem.