Veterans Issues

The United States has been at war in Iraq for over six years and in Afghanistan for over eight years. New York State has the fourth largest veteran population in the country. Currently, there are almost 12,000 service members from the state deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan and many of these service members are from the New York City area.

With the nation still sending troops into harm’s way, we have to continue to assess the needs of those NYC veterans who have returned and will be returning and advocate on their behalf to help them avoid pain and distress when they return to their communities within the five boroughs.

As Mayor Bill will:

Clean House at MOVA and change personnel for a more pro-active leadership for the veteran’s community.

As Bill stated in both the Democratic Primary and the General Election debates, Commissioners will be replaced for his own team. Included in this, the Commissioner of MOVA will be removed. However, because of the many problems at MOVA for the past 12 years, Bill will do a top-to-bottom sweep of the entire office and make significant changes to ensure that more pro-active leadership will re-build bridges with the community. There will also be a top-down review of the office and its mission and how to best accomplish outreach and services to the community.

Work with the City Council on making NEW appointments to the Veterans Advisory Board and complete appointments for a full, nine member board.

The nine members of the city’s Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) advise the MOVA Commissioner on all matters concerning veteran concerns in New York City. The Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) has been incomplete for a number of years as the Mayor and Speaker continue to re-appoint the same individuals since 2002. Currently there are two openings on the board, one for the Mayor and one for the Council. Bill will ensure that the board is complete and follows through on its duty to advocate in the best interests of New York City’s veteran community.

Conduct a top to bottom review of all city (DHS) programs currently in place for homeless veterans. Take a true census of the number of homeless veterans in NYC and opening dialog for more input from the local Veteran Service Organizations and Community Based Organizations that serve homeless veterans.

In 2007, almost 154,000 veterans were homeless on any given night. As has been reported, the vast number of veterans who entered the military from NYC were economically vulnerable to start with, and there is a troubling trend of local veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with no place to live—particularly the number of women veterans with children. This is in addition to the already high number of Vietnam veterans who are currently homeless here in the city. A major problem regarding services for homeless veterans is that no one, including the current administration and other city and non-profit agencies has an idea of the exact number of homeless veterans in New York City. This number is valuable in terms of allocating resources. DHS is required by law (NYC Administrative Code Section 21-310) to determine the number of homeless vets that have entered the city shelters and many veterans were disappointed that DHS didn’t do as 26 councilmember’s requested (in their letter dated January 18, 2007) to include the question: “Are you a Veteran?” in their yearly HOPE (outreach) study.

Will support City Council Intro. 447/2006 – Disabled Veteran Vendors Bill.

While it is recognized that the state legislature addressed this issue a number of years ago, the Bloomberg administration continues to drop the ball by not working with or hearing the concerns of the disabled veteran vendor’s community. This would have allowed the administration and more importantly, the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs to make informed and fair decisions regarding these vendors instead of just listening to the local media, BIDs and other groups by lumping them (disabled veterans) with the first amendment and illegal vendors.

The City needs to address the issue of dual classes of vending licenses. A 40% disabled veteran who has a blue license would allow him or her to vend in the midtown core, while a 100% disabled veteran vendor with a yellow license cannot. This segregates veterans by degree of disability - in essence creating two groups of disabled veteran vendors that compete and fight each other.

With an estimated 322-disabled veteran vendors in New York City a Bill Thompson administration will work with the Council’s Consumer Affairs Committee and the City Council’s Veteran’s Committee to create a policy that would create oversight that is fair and allows disabled veterans vendors to earn a decent living.