During the nearly two years I spent as a resident and front desk clerk at Catholic Charities MANA House, a Veterans Affairs - funded transitional program in Phoenix, my weight ballooned with great food, plenty of community donations, and dinners from local groups expressing their gratitude by giving back. Hardly a weekend went by that one or more groups wasn’t in the kitchen cooking up or serving up a fantastic meal, even if it was only pizza brought in by a local VFW. The cabinets were filled with canned goods from donations, and each ‘team’ was provided with a refrigerator for personal food items. So, I was shocked to enter into the Grant & Per Diem Transitional Program at Borden Avenue Veterans’ Residency that not only provides no access to donations, but fed cold rice and green beans while the kitchen is used to host a culinary school that students then eat the food themselves.
Despite an In-House Culinary School, Borden Ave. Veterans Still Fed Cold Rice and Green Beans
Security for the VA transitional program nearly twice cost of food for homeless veterans at $6.60 a day
While security personnel can be seen sleeping in the hallways, veterans are subjected to a closed off kitchen and non – working vending machines. Coffee is only available during breakfast of cold microwaved eggs and raw English muffins that only budgets a mere $6.60 a day for a transitional program of nearly $19 million a year awarded to NYC Dept of Homeless Services and Institute for Community Living. Residents tell me that the kitchen is closed to them because of insurance reasons. There are no snacks, no community groups with smiling faces and hot meals served with love, and no outside food in the facility. Instead, donations are unceremoniously dropped off on a planter outside the facility. Veterans already struggling with food insecurity are forced to seek nutrition elsewhere while staff is complicit in securing SNAP benefits. The lack of food caused me to lose 22 lbs. in five months, which I am struggling to gain back. Older and disabled veterans are denied access to food and nutritional advice as mandated by Public Law 109-461, § 61.2 Supportive Services—General, and veterans are imprisoned in a NYC shelter miles from any VA healthcare services with no access to transportation. Most of the veterans are underweight and emaciated. My appeals to both the NYC Dept of Veterans Services and non - veteran NYC Council Member and Chair of Dept of Veterans Services Robert Holden have fallen on deaf ears with threats from the DVS Housing Director Lamar Wheeler and an email from CM Holden accusing me of “not wanting to work with anyone” because “no one has ever heard of you.”
While the veterans are subjected to a violent, drug – infested shelter, kitchen staff can be unusually cruel. Many a mealtime, I witnessed veterans denied an extra milk or slice of bread. One veteran asked for an extra packet of hot sauce but was denied while told, “That’s all we have.”
Timothy Pena initially traveled to NYC to collaborate on a documentary on veteran suicide. Soon after arriving, Tim decided he would rather be homeless in NYC than commit suicide in Phoenix and spent five months in a shelter before obtaining his HUD/VASH voucher for supportive housing. During his stay in a violent, drug – infested NYC shelter, he detailed his journey with a series of articles called, 'Be the Story'. He has testified before the NYS Department of Veterans Affairs, is a member of the NYC Veterans Task Force and Military Veterans in Journalism, while founding The Forgotten Veteran non-profit.