A federal lawsuit has accused the Department of Veterans Affairs of withholding benefits based on the race of the applicant, which has disproportionately disparaged Black veterans for decades.

Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services filed the suit on Monday, which reads: “The results of [Veteran Affairs'] racial discrimination has been to deny countless meritorious applications by Black veterans, depriving them and their families of care and support that their faithful service has earned."

The lawsuit was filed by Conley Monk Jr., a Black Vietnam War veteran who is the co-founder and director of the National Veterans Council for Legal Redress, alongside the Black Veterans Project. Monk claims he was denied housing loans due to his race, and after obtaining Veteran Affairs records through the Freedom of Information Act, he found he isn't alone.

Between 2001 and 2020, Black veterans were denied disability compensation at a rate 5.3 percent higher than white veterans. The disparity between acceptance rates was even higher at 6.8 percent.

"VA administrators and Secretaries, and other senior officials, breached this duty when through training, supervision, auditing, record-keeping, and other measures, they failed to redress longstanding, pervasive race discrimination and disparate impacts of which they knew or should have known," the suit continues.

Black veterans are denied benefits while also being the most vulnerable to homelessness. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that 33.1 percent of veterans experiencing homelessness are Black, despite making up 12.3 percent of the general veteran population.

In a statement, Veterans Affairs press secretary Terrence Hayes did not address the lawsuit, but said that the department recognizes the “unacceptable disparities in both VA benefits decisions and military discharge status due to racism."

A study by the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center found that Black veterans often wrongly receive punitive discharges, which block their access to benefits later on. Hayes shared that the VA is currently conducting their own study on racism within benefits decisions that will hopefully address such factors of “institutional racism.”

“We are actively working to right these wrongs,” Hayes said via The Washington Post. “We are taking steps to ensure that our claims process combats institutional racism, rather than perpetuating it.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal attended the press conference in New Haven to say Monk is “leading the charge” in “a truly historic” case. He added: “It will help to break down the apparent discrimination against Black veterans."

Conley Monk also said that he simply wants "equal treatment," which he believes he has earned after his service to the United States.

“I was angry at VA for denying me services even though I fought in Vietnam honorably. The government was like my enemy. They were not there for me," he said. “When we fought in the military, we were side by side. Our blood is the same color.”