Timothy Pena: Veteran shelter conditions at Borden Avenue

Good afternoon.

My name is Timothy Pena.

I'm a service-connected

Navy veteran with PTSD.

I'm also a former resident of Borden Avenue Veterans Residence, which is a veterans program, transitional program in Long Island City.

I resided at Borden Avenue Veterans Residence in 2022 while participating in New York City's homeless services system and pursuing permanent housing.

During my time at Borden, I observed frequent ambulance and police activity.

Residents regularly discussed concerns involving safety, mental health issues, substance abuse, and living conditions within the facility.

I was concerned.

So I spent five months at Borden Avenue.

I'm in supportive housing now.

I've been there for about three and a half years.

And my concerns are the conditions in the shelters, especially for veterans in the VA system.

And I did it in a FOIA that I did with Borden Avenue.

This is the only program that we have available to us for us that are in the VA system.

In a 16-month period of time,

24 to 25, there were 1,365 emergency calls, one every nine hours.

This is also at considerable cost to the city, somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 per person.

Per year.

I appreciate

Appreciate you coming in to give both of our committees your testimony and the facts here.

I read through and understand that you are raising it here today because you want more folks to be aware and the other committees have not.

As in your words, taking the allegation seriously, we will make sure to raise it to the commissioner and to raise it to our Veterans Committee Chair as well.

But I just wanted to state, you know, I understand why you're here today giving us this testimony.

And we'll make sure to raise it to the appropriate folks.

I do want to just thank you for that.

It's not easy being HIV positive.

As a veteran in a program, in a shelter like that.

It doesn't take much.

I was pretty terrified for the five months that I was at Borden.

New York City is an incredible city, but that was my introduction.

To New York City.

And it's the introduction that a lot of us are getting.

And it's not fair.

It's not fair to New York.

It's not fair to New Yorkers to have a situation like that.

And I watched lots of, you know, I've watched veterans die of overdose.

And this is the same as happening in a VA hospital.

So those...

These are the same type of applications that are supposed to apply.

So thank you very much for hearing my testimony.

Thank you.