Borough veterans and family members last Wednesday packed American Legion Post 118 in Woodhaven for a town-hall meeting featuring updates on health, employment and family services at the city, state and federal levels.
City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven) organized the evening’s panel of veterans’ organizations; holding it in Queens because it is home to 46,000 veterans, the largest such population in the five boroughs.
Miller said he is pushing three bills through the Assembly, one to aid in educational and relocation costs for veterans, another to increase property-tax exemptions for service members and a third to provide American Legion Post 1424 on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills with 120 days of buffer time to handle $12,000 in health-code violation fines. On the latter, he said, “I need help from all of you,” asking everyone to write to their local representatives to implore them to pass the bill, though it aids only one post.
Ulrich believes that with the new administration veterans are, “at the forefront of the city’s agenda.” He said that for the first time in seven years, the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs this fiscal year received $400,000 in funding.
“Last year we had zero,” Ulrich said. “The city didn’t spend a nickel.”
Ulrich wants MOVA to become independent of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, rather than an extension of it. He stated that funding needed by veterans actually goes through the Department of Youth and Community Development, which presents a bureaucratic obstacle. If Ulrich’s suggestion were to become official, “money would flow directly in a much shorter amount of time,” he said.
Retired psychiatrist and one-star general and Veteran’s Affairs Commissioner Loree Sutton said she is six weeks into office, and has promised de Blasio an assessment in which she will “identify where the gaps are.”
Sutton, who said she is making her way through the five boroughs talking to veterans of all generations, indicated that her responsibility is to represent vets and their families.
“We are all in this together,” she said.
In concluding her presentation, Sutton addressed the pressing issue of sexual trauma in the military, characterizing it as “not just a women’s issue,” adding that it is “about power and aggression.”
Jamal Othman, deputy director of the state Division of Veterans Affairs, said that soon veterans will be able to show their status on their driver’s license. “I can’t guarantee it, but this may get you out of a ticket,” he joked.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Queens County Commander Ryan Graham announced that he is working on the beginning stages of trying to make St. Albans Community Living Center “fully functional.” He said that he is hoping to get funding for an emergency room, a posttraumatic stress disorder treatment facility, treatment facilities for female veterans, and a City University of New York medical school to move part of its campus to the St. Albans Veterans Affairs hospital. He noted that this proposal is being researched to determine feasibility.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Senior Program Manager Jason Hansman said his organization aids post-Sept. 11 veterans and “what their generation will be facing.” He also discussed the psychological aid that so many vets coming home can use.
Some veterans and family members took time at the end of the evening to shed light on their concerns. Pat Gatt, a borough resident whose husband is a Vietnam veteran receiving treatment at St. Albans, told the panel that she is unsatisfied with the facilities and staff there, calling them “substandard.”
“They treat veterans like they’re five year olds,” she said, adding that when her husband is at the hospital in Brooklyn the care is exceptional.
Sgt. Rafael Concepcion, a Gulf War veteran, said he is concerned about getting his pension. He said that, at 56 and diabetic, he is concerned that he will never be able to get his pension before he turns 60.
Dwight Curry, a Gulf War Veteran with radiation sickness, said that he believes some vets cannot hold average office jobs, and that someone should campaign to make more street-vendor permits available to veterans. Ulrich said that is a complex issue of which he and other officials are aware.
Each organization indicated that any veteran inquiring about, applying for, or navigating their benefits would always receive assistance.
By Jon Cronin
