But those 387 acres aren’t being used to help homeless veterans or veterans at all. The land, CBS news reported earlier this week and ACLU discloses, is being leased by the Veterans Administration. The VA has yet to disclose the income it receives from leasing the property. However, it is currently leasing parts of the land to an Enterprise rental car business and a Sodexho Marriot for a laundry facility. CBS reported that the land is also going to schools’ athletic fields and even a golf course.

In response, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to give veterans a chance to escape the despair of homelessness, mental illness and depression that followed serving in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars over the decade as well as US wars of previous years.

The suit alleges that the VA’s benefits program discriminates against veterans with severe mental disabilities. Research found that homeless individuals with severe mental disabilities cannot access medical and mental services needed without permanent addresses. The VA has ended housing for disabled veterans throughout the country.

ACLU’s lawsuit was filed for the hundreds of severely disabled vets in the Los Angeles area. The lawsuit may be considered a 40 acres and a mule lawsuit in that it asks the government to make good on a promise that it made well over 100 years ago to veterans.

ACLU counsel on the Los Angeles veterans’ case said that veteran homelessness in Los Angeles would end if the land were used for its original purpose. The ACLU filed the suit on June 8, 2011. The suit claims that the Veterans Administration facility in Los Angeles abandons homeless veterans and has misused the land given to house injured vets.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of many veterans in the Los Angeles area, but there are four plaintiffs in the case. One of the plaintiffs is a descendant of the family that originally donated the land. Each of the four veterans suing the federal government suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other disabilities. Vietnam Veterans of America joined the four individuals as a plaintiff in the suit.

The land in question was deeded to the United States in 1888 and for nearly 80 years, the VA did house homeless veterans. But the VA eliminated permanent housing for disabled veterans, and the ACLU reports that many of those veterans now sleep outside of its walls.

In total, the United States has an estimated 107,000 homeless veterans.