PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Melissa del Valle Ortiz, US Army Veteran, on Veterans' Housing and Benefits
1:13:17
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5 min
Melissa del Valle Ortiz, a US Army veteran, testifies about her experiences as a veteran and the challenges she faced after leaving the military. She provides recommendations to improve support for veterans and military families in New York City, particularly in relation to housing and access to benefits.
- Advocates for better access to self-sufficiency programs for residents of project-based Section 8 housing
- Suggests creating a separate category for military families in the homeless shelter system
- Proposes categorizing military income as disallowed income to prevent rent increases during deployment
- Emphasizes the need for immediate access to benefits for inactive military members awaiting honorable discharge
Melissa del Valle Ortiz
1:13:17
Is this someone?
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Hello?
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Okay.
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Cool.
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Alright.
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Thank you for receiving my testimony.
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Good morning, everyone.
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It was really great to be in the room today for a lot of different reasons.
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I'm seeing a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while.
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So I'm submitting this testimony as a 2 year active duty member to the United States Army.
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I'm submitting this testimony as is 30 years overdue.
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I received an honorable discharge in 1997 after 7 years in the inactive reserve due to my pregnancy discharge.
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Prior to that, I birthed my children in 1991 and was later divorced by the 8.
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By the age of twenty four in 1994.
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Then a single mother of 2, I was left with no qualifying veteran or active duty preference or benefits, including a homeownership loan or higher education, affordable housing, etcetera.
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Because of a pending honorable discharge.
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I was forced to get on public assistance and remain homeless for 2 years.
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I was however lucky enough to be housed by various family members due to my own perseverance I secured project based section in housing in Sunset Park, Brooklyn where my children and I remain housed today.
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I have worked and volunteered in my community of Sunset Park for 30 years in every level of civic participation from my community board starting my tennis association, my community action board with Niska and Department of Youth And Community Development.
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Within the nonprofit sector, I've worked for various organizations.
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I've also volunteered, including being the 1st woman of color to serve as president to the League of Women voters in the city of New York, and it's done 95 year history.
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Finally, I've secured employment with the office of Congress member, Nidi of Alaska as a federal housing specialist, and communities on all due to my years of community organizing an involvement, which now includes Sunset Park's 1st veteran military family appreciation for rate, which is gonna happen on November 9 2024.
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I'm testifying today to request that if the city of New York wants to proactively stimulate veteran and military household turnover with the NYCHA housing stock as it enters into the project based section 8 model under the Rad Pak agreement It should take into consideration some of the following recommendations.
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Unlike NYCHA, project based section 8 housing stock receives no federal state or city related supportive services.
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NIKE attendance are, however, given access to job training programs, section 3 employment, qualified for earned income disallowance, first time homeownership programs, etcetera.
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And, yes, these are all federally qualifying HUD guidelines, but the city has the capacity to engage in HUD region 2.
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To engage HUD region 2.
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Therefore, I'm making the following recommendations.
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To engage with HUD, to lift the barriers from residents of dedicated project based sectioning housing.
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So that residents can benefit from the same access to self sufficiency programs that rat pack tenants have access to.
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To include military families as a category on every city government intake, including city council offices and New York City shelters.
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This will give them an informed family members of their eligibility to federal services they may not realize they have they qualify for.
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Create a privatized category of military families within the homeless shelter system as underage dependence of active duty service members should have access to housing subsidies.
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To ensure that nitrile housing counselors inform tenants when a housing member joins the military that they do not need to be removed from the household.
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So that when the service member returns from service, they have access to affordable housing.
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5, that categorize military income as disallow income.
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So that household so that the household is not burdened with the rent increase while the service member is deployed in regards to self sufficiency, why why isn't active?
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Why is an inactive service member any different than a reserve member?
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If counted as an eligible status, this will provide access to a college education certificate vocational training program, waivers to pay city exams, a preference status for gainful employment, licensed as a New York City street vendor.
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If I had any of this while I waited 7 years for my honorable discharge, I could have been all that I could be 7 years sooner.
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I could have had an apartment instead of sleeping on spare beds and sofas and my were my children?
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I could have already owned the home.
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I might have obtained a college degree, and would have awarded me a higher paying job much sooner.
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I might have already had my own small business, and by now my own corporation, As we all know, the military cultivates Agogo to my sect.
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Because of this non eligible status, I hadn't embraced my veteran status until 2023 when I was recognized by Senator Gennardis as a New York State veteran, whole of fame and dottie, for my decades of community service.
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For this reason, I employ you to help hundreds if not thousands of military families and inactive military members awaiting their honorable discharge papers, direct and immediate access to benefits that they successfully need, and in some cases don't even know that they qualify for.
