Dalton explains federal GPD grant reduction and city's decision to decline
Dalton says the GPD grant was reduced 70% from 154 beds and $4 million to 44 beds and $1.3 million, included terms conflicting with city and state anti-discrimination laws, so DHS declined and is using city tax levy funds to cover the gap.
The Federal Grant and Per Diem Program.
I would like to explain the funding New York City received from the Federal Grant and Per Diem Program, or GPD.
The GPD program provides funding to state, local, and community-based partners who provide services to veterans experiencing homelessness, focusing on transitional supportive housing as a stepstone towards permanent housing.
The VA determines eligibility for these services and placements through the GPD program subsequent to a standard DHS intake process previously described.
New York City has been a proud recipient of funding from the GPD program for over 15 years leading into 2026.
With our last three-year funding agreement ending, the Department of Homeless Services applied for a new grant in February 2026.
In June 2026, the VA responded with their proposed funding for the new grant, and if we had accepted the grant, we would have received an official award letter from the VA in September.
The grant award, which previously covered 154 beds and up to $4 million, was reduced by 70% to cover only 44 beds and provide up to $1.3 million in funding.
In addition, for the first time and as a direct result of the federal executive order 14168 defending women gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government
issued January 20th, 2025, the grant agreement language included terms and conditions that DHS could not agree to.
For DHS to agree with.
and comply with the grant's terms and conditions, we would be in violation of state and local laws that protect people from discrimination on the basis of gender.
Those laws include New York State Law, NYS Executive Law 296-2-A, New York State Regulation 9,
New York City RR 466.13 and New York City Local Law Administrative Code Title VIII Chapter 8.
In addition to these legal barriers, the grant's terms and conditions would have required that DHS change the way it operates and introduce discrimination into the intake process, e.g., for example, requiring that we ask questions about biological sex to all people identifying as a veteran.
Given this, DHS identified city tax levy dollars needed to fill the gap in federal funds and inform the VA that the grant offer was to be declined.
To reiterate, the agency is now filling this gap with city tax levy funding so no beds or services are lost and every veteran who needs a bed gets one.
Today, we are serving more veterans at BAVR than we did with the federal funding due to the VA declining many veteran applicants for the grant program.
When the grant ended on September 30, 2026, 105 individuals were residing at BAVR, which has a capacity of 231.
As of October 19th, there are 168 individuals residing at BAVR.
Is now working to fill all available beds at BAVR with veterans from other shelters and new veterans who come into intake.