Morano focuses on Borden Avenue, federal funding, and legislation

Specifically, we are going to be diving headfirst into what's going on over at the Borden Avenue Veterans Shelter.

Councilmember Hudson has been there.

I've been there.

Councilmember Wong has been there.

I know a number of members of the committee and a number of council members who are not on my committee have been there, and we all have independent observations, and we're going to be

posing the questions about what we observed to all the folks that you're going to hear from today.

There's also a whole lot of uncertainty surrounding federal funding for the Borden Avenue Veterans residents, and there are conflicting explanations that have been offered regarding the facility's exclusion from the latest VA.

grant and per diem funding awards.

What's going on here?

Is this something that's easily rectifiable?

And beyond what's going on here, can we make sure that every veteran that had

a bed that was paid for by this VA grant sees no disruption in that bed because of the city's decision to opt out of this grant?

So the city has committed to maintaining services.

Questions remain about how lost federal funding is going to be replaced and what impact, if any, the funding dispute may have on operations.

The discussion has also renewed attention to reported concerns about the conditions at the shelter and the quality of life for veterans living there.

At the time when veterans'homelessness is rising, it's pretty important that there are absolutely no disruptions, not just to housing, but to the supportive services that veterans are seeking there.

And it's equally important that efforts to move veterans from shelter into permanent housing remain a priority regardless of the recent events affecting funding.

And today's hearing is an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of the city's response, identifying remaining gaps, and ensure that veterans experiencing homelessness

receive the necessary support they need to secure and maintain permanent housing.

In addition to our oversight topic today, we will be hearing about a number of pieces of legislation.

Intro number 1050.

sponsored by me, which would amend the administrative code in relation to alternative exemption for seriously disabled veterans.

I'll talk more about that in a minute, and hopefully we'll hear some testimony from DVS and from the public about this.

We're going to be hearing introduction number 0897, sponsored by Councilmember Felice, which would amend the administrative code in relation to the Department of Social Services'response to certain severe winter weather conditions.

We're going to be hearing resolution number 0560, sponsored by Councilmember Palladino, which is calling on the federal government to enact the Fair Access to Co-ops for Veterans Act.

And we're going to be hearing resolution number 0634, which I've also sponsored, which is seeking to recognize 501C19 veteran organizations and designate the week that includes November 11th

annually as Veterans Organizations Awareness Week.