VA Transitional Program Operating From Violent Shelter

During a Vetsgiving event at CM Paladino’s office in November, Chairman of NYC Council Dept of Veterans Services Robert Holden bragged at how ‘they’ had replaced open bunks with cubicles for the veterans at Borden Ave Veterans’ Residence, a self-described shelter with a least a dozen violent sex offenders in residence among the 154 vulnerable veterans enrolled in the VA’s $3.9 Million Grant & Per Diem Transitional Program. 

Since 1994, the Veterans Affairs Grant & Per Diem (GPD) Transitional Program has awarded grants to community-based organizations to provide transitional housing with wraparound supportive services to assist vulnerable veterans move into permanent housing. Grant recipients are required to provide supportive services including housing resources, mental health services, transportation to VA appointments, employment, and a safe and drug-free environment. In addition to providing supportive services to the veterans in the program, but also provide outreach services to veterans in shelters and on the streets.

While veterans convicted of violent sex offenses are not specifically prevented from participating in the GPD program, program grantee Dept of Homeless Services is required to provide a safe, drug-free environment including a whole list of supportive services that the veterans who have fought for this country are being denied as assaults and drug overdoses continue in the shelter. Vietnam Veterans are among those enrolled in Veterans Affairs and being forced to live among violent sexual offenders at the highest risk of reoffending. And while the Institute of Community Living continues to inflict abuses on veterans who have become homeless by no fault of their own, the New York City Council Veterans Services is turning a blind eye while bragging of giving privacy to these sexual offenders who wouldn’t be allowed on a minimum-security prison yard, much less a Veterans Affairs and Congressionally-sanctioned transitional program.

When I arrived at Borden Ave in July 2022, there were 150 cubicles for GPD veterans and 95 bunks in open bays. ICL staff would routinely deny cubicles to GPD veterans for a variety of reasons including reverse discrimination that placed white veterans in open bunks while black veterans not enrolled in the GPD program were provided cubicles. I was subjected to this discrimination when I returned from Arizona. Another GPD veteran I found on the sidewalk outside of Borden Ave was assaulted numerous times on the subways, but still found it safer than the open bunks despite assurances to shelter management that the veteran was enrolled in the VA and feared for his safety. The cubicles were designed to provide equal treatment of the veterans who are adhering to the guidelines for transitional housing, not provide privacy for sex offenders to continue their behavior without monitoring while living, eating, and showering with another 220 vulnerable veterans in the facility: 154 of them supposedly VA GPD transitional veterans.

Whether CM Holden will act on the issues remains to be seen, his office has not responded to repeated requests to meet. While he is taking credit for ridding the open bunks at Borden Ave., he is saying nothing while Honorably discharged veterans are being abused by staff and assaulted by fellow veterans without consequence.  He has, however, made promises to The NYC Dept of Veterans' Services for his alma mater to design, produce, and publish a Veteran's Resource Guide for veterans experiencing homelessness although he has never been homeless nor is a veteran.

VA Transitional Program Operating From Violent Shelter

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. Email: Timothy Pena