Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
DVS funding and veteran self-identification challenges
0:37:00
·
112 sec
Council Member Holden addresses the challenges faced by the Department of Veterans Services (DVS) due to limited funding and difficulties in veteran self-identification. He emphasizes the potential benefits of increased investment in DVS for both veterans and the city's economy.
- Holden suggests that identifying 30,000 more veterans could lead to increased federal resources and economic benefits for NYC.
- He highlights the difficulty of contacting veterans with the current budget constraints.
- Holden expresses frustration with the lack of progress in this area despite ongoing discussions in the committee.
Robert Holden
0:37:00
Wow.
0:37:01
Thank you, commissioner.
0:37:02
That's 11 pages in record time.
0:37:06
I I just want to again thank you for your your complete testimony.
0:37:09
We've been joined by council member Nurs, member of the committee, and on remotely council member Ariola.
0:37:18
So I I just wanna go over a few things and it's kind of like a vicious cycle, commissioner, that, you know, we don't get we don't get enough funding and we, you know, we don't make any progress on self identification.
0:37:35
Have we made any progress under your reign as the commissioner to self identify?
0:37:41
Because it's hard to do when you just get the same budget year in and year out.
0:37:49
And we try to address it because I believe if we get, you know, 30,000 more p more veterans to self identify, they would in turn get more resources from the federal government and then would spend that money in New York City.
0:38:07
So the economy would benefit, so would our veterans.
0:38:12
So it would seem that the city could, you know, could invest in DVS just to, you know, contact more veterans to get them to self identify.
0:38:23
But we you can't even contact them.
0:38:25
It's it's almost impossible with that budget that you have.
0:38:29
So a little investment, and we've been talking about this for a while on this committee, it would seem the mayor would would it actually wanna do this and give us a few more million for DVS to to be able to contact veterans to get them to self identify?
0:38:46
I mean, have you made any progress in that area?
0:38:49
You know, I appreciate just the the concern and just putting that on
James Hendon
0:38:52
the table, mister chair.