After 15 Months, Purple Heart Recipients Still Homeless

Americans are constantly reminded how the Veterans Affairs cares about their veterans, especially those who are most vulnerable to include those experiencing homelessness. For homeless veterans in New York City, that responsibility is delegated to the NYC Department of Veterans’ Services and Commissioner James Hendon. According to the DVS website, “In addition to moving veterans experiencing homelessness into supportive and permanent housing, the NYC Department of Veterans' Services (DVS) connects all veterans to the housing services that are right for them.”

Yet, neither the VA nor NYC DVS have any answers why Marine Sergeant Karl ‘Kolden’ McKeehan and his service k9, ‘PJ’, who both served in Afghanistan and both are Purple Heart recipients have spent to date 15 months in the NYC shelter system being shifted from one shelter to another because of PJ, a military combat trained canine with two takedowns to his credit, but forced to share an open bunk in a dorm of 20 individuals simply because shelter staff are wary of PJ; this while McKeehan has had an active CityFHEPS voucher for months waiting on a supposed background check and a DD-214 not even required for housing. The situation has gotten so bad that Kolden and PJ are being told to either sleep in the dorm ‘provided’, sleep on the street, or sleep on my studio apartment floor while the Department of Homeless Services denies them access to safe, secure housing. There is an estimated 40,000 low-income housing apartments in NYC, yet DHS and the VA continue to fail our veterans.

When I met Kolden he still had not gotten a New York State Identification, his DD-214, Social Security card, and his EBT benefits were suspended because required documentation had not been submitted. As a former ‘resident’ of Borden Ave., I was subjected to a staff complicit in following up on the needs of the veterans while disparaging us with comments such as to “Suck it up” and “Be a man,” Staff and VA officials alike make comments accusing veterans of freeloading off the shelter system just to avoid paying rent. And while there is a certain number of veterans at Borden Ave. which would be content living out their lives in a cubicle style environment, there is also a misconception that because “some veterans are lazy, they must all then be lazy” which is how I was treated and many other veterans are still being treated.

Numerous inquiries and discussions with VA officials including Lamar Wheeler of NYC Department of Veterans’ Services (NYC DVS) and Karen Fuller, Veterans Homeless Program Manager for the Manhattan VA have done little to explain why the VA and Dept. of Veterans Services is impeding housing for a combat veteran and his combat K9. McKeehan supposedly has had housing available for months yet neither Fuller nor Wheeler can explain why the Veterans Affairs is involved demanding documentation from Kolden even they don’t know is required. When asked what the role of DVS had in providing housing for McKeehan and PJ, Fuller responded, “Ask them.”

In a phone call I received an hour before the scheduled meeting for ‘housing processing’ on June 12, Mr. Wheeler, a veteran himself, cancelled citing an ‘emergency’ with a promise to try and schedule another meeting on Tuesday. When I asked him what documentation we would need, he didn’t have an answer and when pressed at when Mr. McKeehan could expect housing, Mr. Wheeler became irate, telling me that it was only a ‘courtesy call’ and I wasn’t entitled to anything beyond that. A promise to call Mr. McKeehan later in the day never materialized, so McKeehan and PJ continue to sleep on my floor. 

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 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