Good morning, and welcome to today's University Council hearing from the Committee of Veterans joined with the Committee on General Welfare.

At this time, I'd like to remind everyone to please house their electronic devices, and at no point is anyone to approach the dais.

Chairs, we're ready to begin.

Hello, everyone.

I have the privilege of being the chair of the Committee on Veterans.

And this is my kind of hearing.

Not only do I love to see a packed house, both at the testimony table and not an available seat to be had in the crowd, which hopefully means we'll have a lot of members of the public testifying.

I'm also hoping we'll have a lot of folks testifying on Zoom.

But when I sought to have this chairmanship, I really sought to do it because I thought this would be a position where I could really help a lot of people, particularly people who don't get the help that they deserve from the city, the state, and the federal government, in spite of the fact that they're still the first to help others.

So I'm excited about this, and I'm particularly excited that it is a joint committee hearing with the Committee on General Welfare.

I'm joined by my colleague Councilmember Crystal Hudson, Chair of the Committee on General Welfare, and we're doing this joint oversight hearing on one of the most important issues facing New York today, and that's the issue of veteran homelessness in New York City.

Thank you for joining us to discuss this important topic.

We come from different political parties, different ideologies, different boroughs, different genders.

If there's a difference chart, we're just about on a different page when it comes to everything.

But we're on the same page when it comes to the importance of needing to do something about veteran homelessness.

And in addition to hopefully getting a lot of great ideas in terms of future legislation, in addition to shining a light on some things that need to be shining a light on, in addition to enhancing our own edification of some real issues that veterans are facing and at the conditions at Borden Avenue specifically, my hope is uh that by having two people like us who come from totally different corners of the world addressing this problem in a very real way and take it seriously.

Hopefully, this is a wake-up call to the eight and a half million New Yorkers that might not be attuned to this issue, that we have 140 to 150,000 people that could really use help in this city, and that's why I'm excited about this.

Like many communities across the country, New York City continues to face a homelessness crisis driven by rising housing costs and a shortage of affordable housing, among other things.

And our veterans are not immune to these challenges.

And ensuring that those who served our country have access to stable housing remains a critical responsibility.

Now the good news is New York City has made uh significant progress in reducing veteran homelessness over the past decade.

In 2025, there were 697 homeless veterans in New York City.

That's down from 1,558 homeless veterans in 2015.

That's a 44% decrease.

Uh, I can promise you I'm gonna be working pretty hard on this issue until that number goes from 697 to zero.

Uh there should there's no excuse for veteran homelessness in New York City as far as I'm concerned.

And uh the successes that we've had are due in part to the coordinated efforts of DVS, DSS, and their partners.

We're gonna hear from them all today.

Veterans experiencing homelessness can access emergency shelter, transitional housing, rental assistance, case management, and permanent housing opportunities.

And uh these services have helped many veterans move from homelessness to permanent housing and achieve long-term stability.

However, uh, between 2015 and 20 excuse me, between 2022 and 2025, the number of homeless veterans has increased a little bit.

Since 2022, we have seen an increase from 482 to 297 individuals.

So while we're in a much better position from where we were 10 years ago, we're not in as good of a position as where we were four years ago.

What's going on?

What's driving that?

Why do we have more homeless veterans now than we did in 2022?

And more importantly, what can we do about it?

So this increase is raising a lot of important questions about whether existing housing resources, supportive services, and homelessness prevention efforts are keeping pace with current needs.

Specifically, we are going to be diving headfirst into what's going on over at uh the Borden Avenue Veterans Shelter.

Uh, Councilmember Hudson has been there.

I've been there, Councilmember Wong has been there.

Uh I know a number of members of the committee and a number of council members who are not on uh my committee have been there, and we all have independent observations, and we're gonna be uh posing the questions about what we observed to all the folks that you're going to hear from today.

There's also a whole lot of uncertainty surrounding federal funding for the Borden Avenue veterans residents, and there are conflicting explanations that have been offered regarding the facilities' exclusion from the latest VA grant and per diem funding awards.

What's going on here?

Is this something that's easily rectifiable?

And beyond what's going on here, can we make sure that every veteran that had uh a bed that was paid for by this VA grant sees no disruption in that bed because of the city's decision to opt out of this grant.

So uh the city has committed to maintaining services.

Questions remain about how lost federal funding is going to be replaced and what impact, if any, the funding dispute may have on operations.

Um the discussion has also renewed attention to reported concerns about the conditions at the shelter and the quality of life for veterans living there.

At the time uh when veterans' homelessness is rising, uh it's pretty important that there are absolutely no disruptions, not just to housing, but to the supportive services that veterans are uh seeking there.

And it's equally important that efforts to move veterans from shelter into permanent housing remain a priority regardless of the recent events uh affecting funding.

And today's hearing is an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of the city's response, identifying remaining gaps and ensure that veterans experiencing homelessness uh receive the necessary support they need to secure and maintain permanent housing.

In addition to our oversight topic today, we will be hearing about a number of pieces of legislation.

Intro number 1050, sponsored by me, which would amend the administrative code in relation to alternative exemption for seriously disabled veterans.

I'll talk more about that in a minute, and hopefully we'll hear some testimony from DVS and from the public about this.

We're gonna be hearing uh introduction number 0897, sponsored by Councilmember Felice, which would admit the administrative code in relation to the Department of Social Services response to certain severe winter weather conditions.

We're gonna be hearing uh resolution number 0560, sponsored by Council Member Paladino, which is calling on the federal government to enact the fair access to co-ops for Veterans Act, and we're gonna be hearing resolution number 0634, which I've also sponsored, which is seeking to recognize 501c19 veteran organizations and designate the week that includes November 11th annually as Veterans Organizations Awareness Week.

Uh, before I conclude, I want to acknowledge Councilmember Hudson, Chair of the Committee on General Warwelfare for working with me on this oversight hearing, and uh it's clear that she recognizes as much as I do how crucial it is to address the housing issues veterans face and uh the barriers to safe and stable shelter that a lot of people still experience.

I'd also like to thank uh the committee staff, uh legislative council Hannah Cohn, um, legislative analyst Raina Lee, legislative policy analyst Mahnoor Boot, Justin Campos, and Nina Rosenberg, senior Financial Analyst Sandra Gray, and uh community liaison Sebastian Neme for their hard work in preparing for this hearing.

I'd also like to thank my staff for their work as we continue to serve our constituents and uh the city as a whole.