Dr. Mecca Nelson testifies on dignity and conditions at Borden

Hello.

Good afternoon.

Well, good afternoon.

Hi there.

It's a pleasure to be here.

I just have a few things to say, and I would like to call this,

Testimony, dignity after service, and safe place to call home.

Good morning, Chair and Co-Chair Hudson and distinguished members of the New York City Council.

Thank you for holding this oversight hearing on veterans homelessness in New York City and for the opportunity to speak.

First off, I do want to say

Thank you to Phil and Julie for being a disruptor of change.

For doing what needed to be done.

That created this space right now.

And when I heard about what was happening, it hurt my heart dearly.

My name is Dr.

Mecca Nelson, and I serve as vice chair for the New York City Veteran Advisory Board.

I'm also an ambassador for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families and an ambassador for the Tunnels to Towers Foundation.

And I am also a small business owner and an executive director of nonprofit.

Above all, I stand before you as a U.S.

Army Gold Star spouse.

My late husband, United States Army Sergeant Mario Nelson, was killed in combat in October.

First, 06, I became a widow at the age of 24, raising our three-year-old daughter.

This month marks 20 years since his sacrifice.

That loss continues to shape my commitment to those who serve and the families who serve alongside them.

bring that personal experience to my work and in the community to this testimony.

When I speak about our veterans'dignity, safety, and well-being,

Do you know I speak from...

Heart that understands.

Today I ask us to listen closely to our veterans and respond with care.

It deeply concerns me to hear veterans describe the showers in their shelter as a resemblance of

being in a jail.

We must listen to how those conditions make them feel.

They are telling us that the place where they live does not feel like home.

It does not offer the comfort of sense of safety they need to rest and begin to heal.

This affects their mental health.

They come out with one situation or one issue.

And as they go in and they're in this world and being inside that shelter, they come out with other things behind it.

And deeply concerns me to take this space and to even be here right now speaking about this.

These are individuals who served our country.

They deserve to be treated with respect, compassion, and care.

Their needs should be attended to, their concerns should be heard, and their living conditions should support their health and well-being.

Our veterans deserve clean showers with privacy, safe surroundings, and a welcoming place to rest.

No veteran should have to plead for these basic necessities or feel forgotten while seeking help.

A shelter may be temporary, but dignity, warmth, and care offered within it should be considered.

We cannot ask someone to rebuild their life while overlooking the conditions in which they are expected to heal.

How can you heal living in those conditions?

Trauma is a serious thing and trauma can affect you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

They served our country.

We have a responsibility to care for them with dignity.

I respectfully urge the council to ensure a thorough, through independent review

of the concerns raised about the facility, including its structural conditions, sanitation, accessibility,

and sustainability for the residential shelter.

If it cannot provide safe, healthy, dignified conditions, the city must provide an appropriate alternative and a supported transition for every veteran affected.

I also ask for a clear process

through which veterans can report concerns about fear of not being taken care of right, receiving timely responses, and participate in decisions about their care.

How can you make decisions for the veterans and not have them in the room to say yay or nay?

How would you know what they really need if you're not asking them?

Thank you, Dr.

Nelson.

Wait, I'm not done.

I have more.

I'm sorry.

I have more to say.

If you could bring it to a close.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I will.

I do feel that that building, and I agree with Joe, that building should be demolished.

And I do have, I do, with my suggestion that I feel, I know that Tundra Towers is a foundation that is building villages, veteran villages across every state.

However, we don't have one out here.

Tunnel to Towers have over 20 veterans nationwide, but we don't have a location in New York for our veterans.

And this is what I have to say so that I don't fall off anything.

My recommendation is that New York City should provide or have or give Tunnel to Towers a location in New York

so that they can have their own independency to do what they do because they're doing the work that they're doing without any issues.

Help secure space to reduce unnecessary obstacles that allow tunnel towers to operate independently to carry out their mission.

New York City has an opportunity to do more for our veterans and support our organizations working to help them.

Our veterans deserve a place that feels like home, a place of comfort, belonging, and hope.

Members of the council.

The decision made in the room become someone else's daily reality.

They determine where a veteran sleeps tonight, whether the veteran can shower with dignity, and whether they feel heard, respected, and hopefully...

And hopeful about tomorrow.

Let our appreciation become action.

Let our oversight lead to meaningful improvements and let every veteran who turns to this city for help know your service

matters, your voice matters, your life matters, and you deserve a safe place to call home.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Dr.

Nelson.

All right.

Next, we have Christopher Leon Johnson.

Mr.

Johnson, you can begin as soon as you're unmuted.