Serving Homeless Vets: NYC Raises the Bar

by Shannon Moriarty

Published December 16, 2008 @ 11:48AM PT

[Picture: Kirsten Luce for The New York Times. A homeless veteran in his cubicle room in a NYC veteran's shelter.]

The New York City shelter system has been been doing some remodeling. Not only are their veteran's shelters looking better, the city's homeless services are partnering up to be more efficient in providing services to the city's army of 1,200 homeless veterans.

"Innovation" is like music to my ears. Usually, "innovation" comes in the form of better, more effective services to the homeless. New York's "innovations" mean refurbished, safe accomodations (a lock on the door? how about that!) and aligning services to prevent homeless veterans from having to run across the city to find a hot shower. According to the New York Times:

Bracing for the return of thousands of soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the midst of a deep recession, city officials have taken some unprecedented steps to prevent a next wave of veterans from also sleeping on its streets.

During the past year, the city has spent $2.3 million to remodel a dingy veterans shelter in Long Island City, Queens, replacing a large room filled with cots with 243 military-style prefabricated living cubicles, and given $14.8 million to build two apartment buildings, where residents will have access to on-site counseling within a mile of the James J. Peters V.A. Medical Center in the Bronx. It has also lobbied to transform empty annex buildings at a veterans medical center in suburban Montrose into 96 units of two-year transitional housing, the first of its kind in the state.

And, perhaps most important, the city's Department of Homeless Services and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs have integrated with Project Torch, where veterans can pursue short- and long-term housing as well as other services, all in the same office - something no other city has done, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The NY Times says that Washington officials are keeping a close eye on the innovative approaches to house homeless veterans in New York. Given the influx of homelessness among veterans following Vietnam, government officials seem prepared to do whatever it takes to accomodate homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.