PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Timothy Pena, Founder of Veterans Justice Project and The Forgotten Veteran
1:40:27
·
4 min
Timothy Pena, a veteran and founder of two veteran-focused organizations, shares his experience as a homeless veteran in New York City and highlights the importance of voting rights for veterans. He discusses the challenges faced by veterans with felonies in regaining voting rights and emphasizes the need for quick access to community resources for homeless veterans.
- Proposes waiving fees for veterans in the shelter system to access New York City's recreational programs
- Highlights issues with MTA and Fair Fares not acknowledging VA disability for reduced fare eligibility
- Suggests improving access to voting registration and other essential services for veterans in transitional housing programs
Timothy Pena
1:40:27
Yeah.
1:40:27
I write an organization called Veterans Justice Project.
1:40:31
And an organization here in New York City called the forgotten veteran.
1:40:36
I get it.
1:40:40
I spent 5 months in a shelter here in New York City when I first came in under the VA Gramper diem transitional program, which is at a congressional program for VA eligible veterans to receive access to resources.
1:41:01
Support of housing, transitional services, employment opportunities.
1:41:08
1 of those, of course, is registering the vote, getting our documents and our identifications.
1:41:16
One of the first things that I did when I got to New York City was I registered to vote.
1:41:23
And one of the reasons why I came to New York City, one of the things that had a part in that was the voting laws.
1:41:33
Currently, there are over 600,000 veterans who cannot vote in this country.
1:41:40
Felonies.
1:41:42
In my home state of Arizona.
1:41:45
If you have more than 2 lifetime felonies, you have to go back to the sentencing court and plead your case why they should allow you to vote again.
1:41:58
For veterans, it's even more difficult.
1:42:02
Because we heard and we hear just because you're a veteran is not an excuse for a free ride.
1:42:11
It's not a free get out of freak jail card.
1:42:14
So not being able to vote, most likely ever again in Arizona, And as a veteran, was one of the reasons why I ended up here in New York City, and the first thing I did was I registered, and I've been voting since.
1:42:33
So but it's very important because as we are talking about here today, as far as like veterans and civic engagement.
1:42:49
The main thing that we are here, and I can speak as a homeless veteran, is getting ourselves into the community as quickly as possible.
1:43:01
And that is being able to be afforded those resources and supportive services from the shelters when we come into them.
1:43:11
Because once we leave that system, we won't be it's very difficult to try to get access is try to get back.
1:43:24
Once you leave the cyst the transitional program, it's very difficult to get back into their system.
1:43:33
Yeah.
1:43:34
If I might, just two things on on what we've been talking about.
1:43:38
One one of the things that I realized when or when I noticed when I came in was there are a wonderful part system, and a wonderful recreational program here in New York City.
1:43:50
It's $25 a year for veterans.
1:43:53
Fantastic.
1:43:54
I would propose that the city council of into waiving those fees for veterans who are coming into the shelter system and letting them have quick immediate access from the shelters into the rec centers and also another thing which has been brought up today.
1:44:13
Currently, MTA and neither MTA nor Fair's Fair acknowledge VA for disability.
1:44:25
I'm a disabled veteran.
1:44:27
I I'm 70%.
1:44:30
We submitted the paperwork to MTA for for reduced fares and it's been rejected because from I was told, I can't be collecting SSDI and VA disability at the same time.
1:44:51
So if I'm collecting VA disability, I can apply for SSDI, and that's all that they'll accept with the MTA.
1:45:00
Thank you very much.
