Beyond all the political rhetoric about the influx of migrants to New York, there is another vulnerable population that needs help finding housing: veterans. Derek Coy, a veteran who serves as a senior program officer at the New York Health Foundation, told Capital Tonight that one in five veterans experiencing homelessness will seek help.
According to an estimate by the state Division of Veterans Services, about 37,000 veterans experience homelessness with nearly 23,000 in shelters nationally. In New York, that number is 990 people, representing a 21% decrease from 2020 to 2022. Coy says homelessness rates have been falling over the past 15 years, but the numbers are still “very high”.
Coy says economic insecurity and type of discharge can play a role in whether a veteran experiences homelessness. Coy argues that “there is a strong link between having what is considered a bad paper discharge and experiencing homelessness later.”
Legislation is floating around the Capitol that would make a person’s veteran status a protected class for “unlawful housing discrimination.” The bill, sponsored by Nathalia Fernandez in the Senate and Harvey Epstein in the Assembly, remains in each chamber’s Government Operations Committee. A version of the bill that was proposed in the previous legislative session stalled in the Assembly Government Operations Committee.
