Q&A
Council Member Sandy Nurse questions Commissioner James Hendon on veteran housing and services
0:26:44
ยท
4 min
Council Member Sandy Nurse engages in a Q&A session with Commissioner James Hendon of the NYC Department of Veterans' Services (DVS) regarding housing and support services for homeless veterans. They discuss the challenges of transitioning veterans from emergency shelters to supportive housing and the importance of showing a clear pathway to affordable housing and homeownership.
- DVS has recently hired new housing coordinators to improve their support for veterans in various housing situations.
- The department emphasizes a "high touch navigator support" approach to build trust and help veterans through different housing stages.
- There is a focus on destigmatizing supportive housing and presenting it as a viable long-term option for some veterans with complex needs.
Sandy Nurse
0:26:44
Thank and I appreciate the option to bump up earlier.
0:26:48
I'm sorry I can't attend the whole hearing.
0:26:50
Have a previous standing commitment.
0:26:53
One, I just wanna commend you for what you laid out in your speech and the work that you all are doing.
0:27:00
I I am I am a little concerned about what's happening at the federal level in the in the lack of clarity and confusion and chaos that is being directed towards the VA.
0:27:12
And as a daughter of veterans and having multiple family members who rely on the VA, I'm very concerned about that.
0:27:20
We should be very clear and consistent with our veterans that they're going to be supported both in their medical services and also in their housing.
0:27:27
I wanted to ask about what your interaction is with other agencies regarding supportive housing units because there are hundreds that are sitting vacant.
0:27:39
And I know that you all aren't running and managing housing, but what are the communications about trying to get some of our homeless veterans into some of these units?
0:27:50
And are you all at all at all helping veterans fill out the 20 the the twenty ten e form?
0:27:56
Are you helping the folks fill out these applications?
James Hendon
0:27:59
I'll start a little bit.
0:28:00
Thank you so much for that question, councilman.
0:28:01
And once again, thank you just for being in here as a family member, as a military family.
0:28:06
We appreciate you for that.
0:28:07
I'll start a little bit and defer to, you know, Lamar Dessonia for more of this.
0:28:11
We do work with folks as far as the twenty ten e.
0:28:13
That's one thing.
0:28:14
One of the big issues with us is that we went from having roughly 5,000 or so, just under 5,000 homeless veterans to now it's just over 600.
0:28:22
Right now, we're dealing with a group where you have folks with some serious complex needs, and there's reluctance often to move from emergency into supportive.
0:28:32
And so what we're working on is to make sure folks can see the entire pathway.
0:28:37
In other words, it's not just you go into supportive, you just stay there.
0:28:41
It's if you see yourself getting too affordable, getting to ownership, we wanna be able to cast that light to be able to show them what the paths are.
0:28:47
Right now, we list things at, you know, nyc.gov/vetladder, but I'm so happy that for us, you know, we just onboarded two new coordinators for housing just last month.
0:28:57
And so that gives us the ability to have one coordinator take the additional duty on of being our affordable housing slash ownership person.
0:29:03
And so what we're saying to ourselves is we can message to our veterans and shelter.
0:29:06
Hey.
0:29:07
Look.
0:29:07
You know, don't think of it as just supportive housing the way you typically think of it.
0:29:10
This is step one housing.
0:29:12
Let me make sure we've been with you every step of the way for emergency housing where you are right now is step zero.
0:29:17
Supportive housing is step one.
0:29:18
Here's how we can stand with you for affordable and stand with you for ownership.
0:29:22
I personally feel I'm gonna refer to to Sonia to Lamar to add to this.
0:29:25
One of the key issues is if I don't see what the long goal is, why not just stay here?
0:29:32
And we wanna break that.
0:29:33
We really wanna show folks, no.
0:29:34
Look.
0:29:35
We're with you every step of the way, and here's how we're with you now in emergency.
0:29:39
But here's how we can be with you and supportive, but to make sure that you are good to go to do all the things you need to do to be able to be right in affordable and right in ownership.
0:29:48
So that that's I think that's that's what we're driving for right
Robert F. Holden
0:29:50
now.
Sandy Nurse
0:29:51
Yeah.
0:29:51
And there are developments that now have both supportive and, you know, mixed market and and other, non supportive affordable units that will work with people in supportive to transition them over into the existing buildings.
0:30:04
They don't have move far.
0:30:05
So, you know, ownership might not be attainable for everyone but there are opportunities to move out of supportive housing and some supportive housing is really really nice.
0:30:12
I mean very nice looking and because of these folks having a complex range of issues supportive housing can be a long term place that is viable, and we should we should work to destigmatize that a bit.
0:30:27
But I appreciate your your time.
0:30:29
Thank you.
0:30:29
And thank you, chair.
James Hendon
0:30:31
I ask one other thing real quick?
0:30:32
The secret sauce of this team is the high touch navigator support.
0:30:36
That's really it.
0:30:37
And so we already have strong touches with those we assist.
0:30:39
And so now it's us saying, okay.
0:30:41
Look.
0:30:41
We can be there with you in this high touch way, not just for emergency and for support, but we got you for these others.
0:30:47
And we think that that can help just that trust, that bond.
0:30:49
So I just wanna say that.
Robert F. Holden
0:30:50
Alright.