PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Coco Culhane, Founder and Executive Director of Veteran Advocacy Project
1:30:38
·
117 sec
Coco Culhane from the Veteran Advocacy Project provided testimony focusing on proposed legislation for veteran housing vouchers. She advocated for creating a city-level program similar to HUD-VASH, utilizing DVS for housing case management services.
- Suggested tying housing vouchers to DVS's existing case management services
- Highlighted the difficulties veterans with PTSD face in navigating the shelter system
- Emphasized the need for clear definitions and implementation guidelines in the proposed bill
Coco Culhane
1:30:38
Hi.
1:30:39
Coco Culhane from Veteran Advocacy Project.
1:30:42
I don't have anything to say about the arts.
1:30:44
I've enjoyed listening to everyone's amazing stories.
1:30:48
I just wanted to comment quickly on the voucher bill.
1:30:52
So the testimony the written testimony we've submitted offers, you know, technical amendments, suggestions.
1:30:58
And I just wanted to say, to advocate for it that, while this is something that's just technically available through city feps, there's an opportunity here to create you know, go the extra mile for veterans and to basically create something like HUD VASH on the city level.
1:31:17
Since the funding is essentially already there for those vouchers, why not, you know, make these specific vouchers available through DVS, not having them run or implement the system, right, not recreating the wheel, but they do housing case management services.
1:31:33
It's one of their strengths.
1:31:34
Why not tie that to these vouchers?
1:31:38
And then just, you know, in terms of specifics, in terms of post traumatic stress disorder, different mental health conditions, going through the shelter system, we know is extremely taxing.
1:31:50
As, you know, attorneys, we've tried to do accommodation reasonable accommodation requests to get people, you know, to skip those lines and things like that in those processes.
1:31:59
And it's extremely difficult, time consuming, and a lot of our clients just give up.
1:32:03
Getting an appointment at home base, very, very difficult.
1:32:06
I know there's a housing nonprofit that's about to hopefully hire someone to be a veteran navigator for the home base, and to offices.
1:32:15
So I think there's an opportunity that this bill could be, amended with you know, it needs a lot put into it in terms of definitions and and implementation.
1:32:26
But I think there's a real opportunity, and you'd be targeting a small population that's that's still in shelter, and does need some some extra assistance.
