The budget for the city’s Veterans services agency ballooned nearly 70 percent in the last fiscal year, but homeless ex-military members got less housing and other services, City Hall’s own stats show.
The Veteran Services Department spending grew from $3.6 million to $5.4 million this year, but it placed 7 percent fewer homeless Veterans in housing and provided 6 percent fewer Veterans supportive services — a downtick activists attribute to Hizzoner’s absenteeism during his failed presidential run.
“It certainly has not been helping anyone that Mayor de Blasio has been absentee these last many months, and it has been crystal clear that the only Veterans he prioritizes are the ones he’s met with on campaign stops outside of NYC,” said Kristen Rouse, director of the NYC Veterans Alliance.
In May Rouse blasted de Blasio for sitting down with Nevada Vets, when he’d never held a similar meeting with his own constituents.
The report attributes the housing dip to staff vacancies that have since been filled.
“For years, DVS has struggled to build a cohesive team without dedicated human resources staffing and other key administrative roles needed to establish clear roles, procedures, and basic infrastructure for a healthy, thriving agency,” Rouse said.
“The metrics listed in the MMR for DVS are truly disappointing, but not altogether unsurprising,” she added, referring to the Mayor’s Management Report for the Department of Veterans Services.
The only bright spot for the agency was a 7 percent increase in Veterans “reached by the community engagement team,” according to the report.
A DVS spokeswoman said the agency opened two supportive housing complexes with a total 130 units this summer, which is not reflected in the report.
The spokeswoman, Alexis Wichowski, attributed the large budget boost to the addition of an HR department at the agency, which was created by Mayor de Blasio in 2016.
“DVS works tirelessly to ensure that NYC Veterans and their families are housed and connected to appropriate resources. As a result of our continuous data collection, analysis, and subsequent improvements, DVS is now on track to house a record number of homeless Veterans this year and connect even more NYC Veterans and family members to services,” Wichowski said.
There are about 210,000 former service members living in the five boroughs, the majority of whom are Vietnam War Veterans.
{jcomments on}