Borden Avenue Veterans' Shelter (NYC) Report 2026

Part l5: NYC Veterans Advisory Board

Timothy Pena

Founder/Veterans Justice Project

September 2026

Representation, Oversight, and Veteran Voice

Introduction

The New York City Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) provides a formal connection between the City's Veteran community, elected officials, and the Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS). Unlike DHS, ICL, or VA, the Board does not operate shelters, administer the Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program, award housing vouchers, or manage service contracts. Its importance lies in its advisory function: hearing directly from Veterans, identifying concerns, evaluating City policies, and recommending improvements to government.

Parts 13 and 14 examine DVS advocacy and Veterans Task Force coordination, while Parts 16 and 17 address legislative and governmental oversight. This Part focuses more narrowly on the VAB's distinctive role in representation, public participation, and ensuring that the experiences of Veterans experiencing homelessness reach policymakers.

Representation and Public Participation

The VAB is structured to represent New York City's five boroughs through members appointed by the Mayor and City Council. Its 2025 Annual Report identifies representatives from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. During 2025, the Board also conducted hybrid public meetings throughout the five boroughs, providing opportunities for Veterans to participate in person or remotely.

Geographic representation, however, does not necessarily ensure representation of different Veteran experiences. Veterans experiencing homelessness may encounter government differently from Veterans seeking business assistance, educational opportunities, employment, or other services.

Meaningful representation should provide opportunities to hear from:

• Veterans experiencing or formerly experiencing homelessness.
• Women Veterans and Veterans with families.
• Older and disabled Veterans.
• Justice-involved Veterans.
• Veterans who have used GPD or other transitional housing.
• Veterans who have successfully transitioned into permanent housing.

No single Veteran can represent all of these populations. The objective is to ensure that the Board's understanding of Veteran needs reflects both geographic and experiential diversity.

Homeless Veterans in the 2025 Annual Report

The source Part identifies a significant limitation in the VAB's 2025 Annual Report: although housing is addressed as a major Veteran policy area, the report does not contain a substantive section examining Veteran homelessness, GPD transitional housing, shelter conditions, or the experiences of Veterans transitioning from homelessness into permanent housing.

This omission does not diminish the importance of the other subjects addressed by the Board, including affordable housing, benefits, Veteran-owned businesses, student Veterans, street vendors, and Veteran Treatment Courts. It does, however, indicate that one of the most vulnerable segments of the City's Veteran population received comparatively limited attention in the annual report.

The Board's own recommendations provide a framework for addressing that gap. Its 2025 report called for DVS to develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) extending beyond initial intake and recommended a feedback process allowing referring organizations to determine whether Veterans were contacted and assisted. The report also recognized complaints from Veterans who reported contacting DVS without receiving adequate follow-up.

That same outcome-oriented approach can be applied to Veteran homelessness.

Borden Avenue Before the Board

The April 29, 2026 Queens VAB meeting, designated as a housing-focused session, demonstrates the Board's potential role. DVS presented information concerning housing support, rehousing, vouchers, apartment searches, lease signings, and aftercare. During the same meeting, concerns regarding Borden Avenue entered the official VAB record.

According to the meeting materials, concerns raised included reported violence, drug activity, police activity, vacant cubicles, recreational facilities, kitchen access, transparency, and oversight. The minutes indicate that several matters would receive follow-up and identify a proposed Borden Avenue site visit involving Commissioner Yesenia Mata and VAB members.

Those statements should not be treated as VAB findings that the reported conditions were proven. Public testimony establishes that concerns were presented to the Board and became part of the official process. Verification requires comparison with the operational, emergency-response, financial, and other evidence examined elsewhere in this report.

From Veteran Voice to Advisory Action

Veteran testimony is most valuable when it produces more than an official record. Agencies can describe how services are designed, while Veterans can explain how those services function in practice. The VAB is positioned to compare those perspectives and identify questions requiring further review.

When significant concerns are presented, an effective advisory process should:

• Document the issue accurately.
• Identify the agency capable of addressing it.
• Request information or clarification where appropriate.
• Track commitments made in response.
• Report whether meaningful follow-up occurred.

This does not convert the VAB into an investigative or enforcement agency. It strengthens its advisory function by ensuring that recurring concerns do not disappear after the public meeting ends.

Conclusion

The Veterans Advisory Board occupies a different position from the agencies and oversight institutions examined elsewhere in this report. Its principal strength is access to Veteran experience combined with direct access to City policymakers. Borough-wide meetings and public participation create opportunities for Veterans whose experiences may not appear in administrative reports to identify service gaps and recommend improvements.

The limited treatment of Veteran homelessness in the 2025 Annual Report indicates an area where that function can be strengthened. The April 2026 housing meeting demonstrates the opposite possibility: when Veterans experiencing homelessness participate directly, concerns involving Borden Avenue, housing barriers, GPD services, and program oversight can enter the official record and generate commitments for follow-up.

A strong VAB should therefore ensure that homeless and formerly homeless Veterans are not merely subjects of policy discussion but meaningful participants in it. Its effectiveness should be reflected not simply in the number of meetings conducted or comments received, but in whether Veteran experience informs recommendations, identified concerns receive follow-up, and City policy becomes more responsive to Veterans attempting to move from homelessness into permanent housing.