New York, NY -- As New York City enters a new legislative cycle with a new Speaker-designate at the helm, one crisis continues to grow, largely unacknowledged: the City’s systemic failure to protect veterans in transitional housing. At the center of this crisis is the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence (BAVR) —the only VA-funded Grant & Per Diem (GPD) site in NYC—where federal policy is being violated and veterans are being retraumatized rather than restored. The GPD program is a federal initiative designed to give VA-eligible homeless veterans a structured, time-limited transitional environment on their path to independence. But at BAVR, operated by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and the Institute for Community Living (ICL) , that mandate has been replaced with a co-mingled “MICA” model—housing veterans side-by-side with residents suffering from active drug use and untreated psychiatric disorders. This not only violates federal GPD policies, it endangers veterans, many of whom are already living with PTSD or recovering from substance abuse .

New York City’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) is facing mounting criticism for its mismanagement of federally funded transitional programs for veterans. At the center of the controversy is the city’s blending of its MICA (Mentally Ill, Chemically Addicted) shelter model with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Grant and Per Diem (GPD) program—an approach that violates federal law and undermines the recovery of the very veterans the program was designed to serve. The GPD program, authorized under Public Law 109-461 (Title II, Section 2061 of Title 38, U.S. Code), was established to help homeless veterans by funding transitional programs that offer structured, sober, and supportive environments. Grantees are required to provide comprehensive case management, mental health and substance use treatment, and referrals to permanent housing. Central to the program is the requirement that grantees maintain a recovery-oriented setting that protects the health and safety of all participants. Despite these federal standards, DHS has allowed GPD-funded programs in New York City—most notably the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence (BAVR)—to operate as MICA shelters. This MICA designation, governed by city-level harm-reduction policies, allows continued residence for individuals who actively use drugs, exhibit violent behavior, or suffer from untreated mental illness. These policies are fundamentally incompatible with the recovery-focused mission of the GPD transitional program. Veterans placed in these facilities are subjected to highly destabilizing environments. Reports from BAVR include widespread drug use, violent assaults, and dangerous residents. Some veterans suffering from PTSD have been forced to sleep under 24-hour fluorescent lighting out of fear, while others have relapsed into substance use due to persistent exposure to heroin and other drugs inside their dormitories. These conditions violate both the letter and the spirit of the GPD program’s legal mandate. Program administrators frequently cite MICA protections as justification for their refusal to discharge disruptive or noncompliant residents. However, GPD regulations under 38 U.S.C. § 2012 clearly state that grantees must take corrective action when the safety or therapeutic environment of a program is compromised. DHS’s failure to enforce these requirements represents not only gross mismanagement but a breach of its funding obligations. This misuse of GPD transitional program funds raises serious concerns about accountability. DHS receives more than $4 million annually in federal GPD grants, yet contracted providers such as the Institute for Community Living (ICL) have failed to uphold compliance. ICL reported $188.6 million in revenue last year and paid its CEO nearly $500,000, while veterans at its sites went without access to proper nutrition, clean facilities, or transportation to medical appointments. The roof at BAVR, for instance, has reportedly leaked for over a decade without repair. The VA’s Office of Inspector General has previously cited discrepancies in discharge tracking and outcome reporting at GPD sites in New York City. By allowing ineligible individuals to reside in GPD-funded programs and failing to follow federally mandated discharge procedures, DHS and its providers may also be submitting inaccurate data—concealing systemic failures and risking further misuse of federal funds. Reform advocates are calling for immediate corrective actions. These include separating GPD transitional programs from city-run MICA shelters, enforcing VA discharge policies, transferring oversight to veteran-focused providers such as Catholic Charities or Samaritan Village, and conducting a full federal audit of GPD fund usage in New York City. The GPD program was never intended to be a general-purpose shelter for the mentally ill and chemically addicted. It was designed as a structured, transitional program to help honorably discharged veterans move from homelessness toward stability and independence. New York City’s failure to respect this mandate has placed those veterans in harm’s way—and undermined a critical national program. To restore trust and integrity in the system, city and federal authorities must act swiftly to bring GPD operations in New York back into compliance with Public Law 109-461. Veterans answered the nation’s call to serve. Now, the programs created to support them must do the same. Printable pdf. MICAshelters_20250725

New York, NY -- A nonprofit dedicated to ending veteran debt is scaling back fundraising after its founder, Jerry Ashton, inadvertently sent an email admitting to bankruptcy and years of unfiled taxes to Timothy Pena , a veteran advocate and fellow journalist. The misdirected email has not only shaken the credibility of End Veteran Debt (EVD) —a charity Ashton launched in 2024—but has also exposed internal fractures within its partnership with Staten Island’s Performing Provider System (SI PPS) and its director, Michael Matthews . The October 24, 2025 email, intended for Ashton’s attorney, described a tense call with the Long Island law firm Smith Carroad Wan & Parikh over unpaid debts tied to Ashton’s failed media venture, Let’s Rethink This . In it, Ashton admitted he was “in the process of filing for bankruptcy” and catching up on “three years of tax filings.” He added that his own attorney had apparently dropped him as a client before asking, “What next, coach?” — believing Pena to be his lawyer. For Pena, the accidental disclosure confirmed what he had long suspected: that EVD’s leadership lacked the transparency and accountability expected of a veteran-serving nonprofit. Ashton’s bankruptcy revelation came just weeks after Pena was barred from the Staten Island Military and Veterans Families (SMVF) Taskforce meeting, which Matthews oversees. Pena had objected to a proposed collaboration between EVD and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) . In a September 29 letter to AFSP, Pena warned that Ashton had ridiculed his service-connected PTSD and excluded him from a suicide prevention summit at Fordham University despite confirming him as a panelist. “Veteran suicide is not something to exploit to promote a funding scheme,” Pena wrote. “Vulnerable veterans place dependency on organizations like these in different ways—and Jerry doesn’t realize that.” The Fordham event, Righting Veteran Wrongs, Ending Veteran Suicide , was heavily promoted through SI PPS newsletters and emails. The partnership touted a goal of forgiving $1 million in veteran debt through EVD’s “Operation Debt-Day” campaign. Ashton, a Navy veteran and former co-founder of RIP Medical Debt , was spotlighted as a national whistleblower and reformer. The Staten Island campaign promised to raise $15,000 locally to “support the Staten Island Veteran and Active Duty Community”. But Pena, also a member of Military Veterans in Journalism (MVJ) like Ashton, began questioning how the organization would actually identify and assist indebted veterans. In a series of emails, he pressed Matthews for answers about EVD’s debt-purchasing practices. Matthews responded that EVD worked with ForgiveCo , a for-profit intermediary that buys and retires debt in bulk, and acknowledged that “the VA debt actually is not available for purchase.” He further conceded that EVD “cannot forgive individual debt” and that the organization does not even know who benefits until after portfolios are purchased. For Pena, this was proof of a misleading public message. “End Veteran Debt gives the impression that you can have my debt forgiven, which is not the case,” he wrote to Matthews. “This is more about purchasing VA debt and less about the regular veteran whose credit score is in the toilet”.