VA-eligible veterans like Army Veteran Mount Lacy and his service dog, Saddie has been assaulted multiple times in various shelters, dragged from one shelter to another, and all after Mount was assaulted by two individuals in the Borden Ave bathroom in October 2023. After the assault, the shelter refused to provide video evidence of the assault and Mr. Lacy was arrested. He was then rendered homeless and spent the next five months on the street while also on Court supervision. He claims he has been in nine different shelters since February 2024 although he is a 70% service-connect disabled veteran and considered a “triage” veteran. He is currently in a violent shelter while being continuously harassed and threatened. The lead organizations, Department of Veterans Services, NYC Department of Homeless Services, and the Institute for Community Living.
Borden Ave Veterans Program Placing Veterans at Risk
Congressional Veterans Affairs transitional program being abused by NYC Dept. of Homeless Services. Hundreds of thousands of federal dollars unaccounted for while VA-eligible veterans sleep in violent shelters.
The Veterans Affairs Grant and Per Diem Transitional Program is VA’s largest transitional housing program for Veterans experiencing homelessness and is permanently authorized under Public Law 109-461. Since 1994, the GPD Program has awarded grants to community-based organizations to provide transitional housing with wraparound supportive services to assist vulnerable Veterans move into permanent housing. According to Veterans Affairs, the GPD Program, “is offered annually (as funding permits) by the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund community agencies providing services to Veterans experiencing homelessness. The only GPD program in NYC is at Borden Ave Veterans' Residency which receives approximately $4 million / year to provide GPD services to 154 VA-eligible-veterans (approx. $70/day). Instead, staff have refused to provide a safe, drug-free environment according to the Veterans Rights and Responsibilities and instead cater to violent sex offenders while "red flagging" VA-eligible veterans and transferring them to some of the most violent shelters in NYC.
The NYC Dept of Homeless Services has made it a common practice to kick out veterans who demand the resources they have earned and are entitled to, myself included when I was a resident at Borden Ave. Manhattan VAMC Homeless Services Director Karen Fuller who has oversight of the GPD program has refused to take responsibility, refused to acknowledge dozens of complaints, and engaged in behavior inconsistent with Veterans Affairs. She and NYC Dept of Veterans Services Housing Director Lamar Wheeler have told veterans that for unsubstantiated reasons, VA-eligible veterans have been transferred to other shelters while telling them there is no room at Borden Ave for them to return.
That is simply not true as shown by the attachments. What is also problematic, is that while NYC DHS is receiving this funding, VA-eligible veterans are sleeping in other shelters, on the subways, and in the streets while violent, drug and sex offenders sleep in their beds and steal their resources resulting in approximately $1 million unaccounted for. For more information on the GPD program, please visit: https://www.theforgottenveteran.org/gpd
Timothy Pena initially traveled to NYC at the invitation of RIP Medical Debt founder and U.S. Navy Veteran Jerry Ashton to collaborate for his project, Veterans Mission Possible. Soon after arriving, Tim decided he would rather be homeless in NYC than commit suicide in Phoenix and spent five months in a violent, drug-infested shelter before obtaining his HUD/VASH voucher for supportive housing while detailing his journey from homeless to homeness 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.
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