A Bittersweet Ending: An Opportunity to Build Something Better for Veterans is Squandered

I know the value of that model personally. Ten years ago, when I was homeless, GPD helped save my life by providing the stability and tools I needed to transition out of homelessness and establish long-term wellness. Since arriving in New York City four years ago, much of my focus has been helping other veterans obtain those same opportunities. That is why I never wanted New York City to lose GPD. I wanted New York City to make GPD work for every veteran who needed transitional housing.

According to sources within Veterans Affairs, the VA offered to continue funding 40 GPD beds in New York City, substantially reducing the 154 beds currently authorized at Borden Avenue. DHS declined that offer. Unless another provider assumes the program, New York City will effectively go from 154 authorized VA transitional beds to zero. That outcome was not inevitable because DHS had other options.

Transitional Housing Should Serve Veterans, Not a Diagnosis

One of the greatest opportunities created by separating Veterans Affairs from Borden Avenue is the possibility of rebuilding GPD around what veterans actually need. Homeless veterans are not one population with one diagnosis, and the circumstances that bring a veteran into homelessness can be dramatically different.

A Vietnam veteran who loses his apartment in a fire may need transitional housing. A 75-year-old veteran whose spouse of 50 years dies and who suddenly cannot afford the rent may need transitional housing. A woman veteran escaping homelessness may need it, as may a veteran with children or someone simply waiting for HUD-VASH to secure permanent housing. None of those circumstances automatically means the veteran is mentally ill or addicted to drugs.

Yet Borden Avenue has operated under a MICA—Mentally Ill/Chemically Addicted—model. In my view, tying New York City's principal veteran transitional environment to that model has unnecessarily associated veteran homelessness with mental illness and substance use while failing to adequately accommodate veterans who simply need a safe place to transition.

A future GPD program should reverse that philosophy. Homelessness should establish the need for transitional housing, while mental-health and substance-use services should be readily available for veterans who need them. Those diagnoses should not define the identity of every veteran seeking temporary housing.

What a Veteran Transitional Program Should Provide

A genuine veteran transitional program should begin with dignity, safety and stability. Veterans should receive adequate food, privacy, clean living conditions, transportation to Veterans Affairs and meaningful opportunities for community engagement. They should also be protected from open drug activity, persistent violence and conditions that can undermine the very recovery the program is supposed to encourage.

That responsibility becomes particularly important for older and vulnerable veterans. Imagine an honorably discharged Vietnam veteran in his seventies being placed in an environment where emergency responses are routine, drugs are allegedly openly used, noise interferes with sleep and open communal showers provide little privacy within a population that has included registered sex offenders. A veteran who has lived independently for 50 years should not suddenly be expected to accept those conditions merely because he lost his home.

Community donations to Borden Avenue have always represented more than used clothing, food or household supplies. When a family donates the clothing of a beloved Vietnam veteran who has passed away, they often do so believing that his coat, shirts or shoes will go to another veteran who served this country and is now struggling to rebuild his life. There is dignity and trust attached to that gift. The family is not simply cleaning out a closet; they are passing something belonging to their father, brother or uncle to another veteran they believe is worthy of receiving it. Every organization accepting donations in the name of homeless veterans has an obligation to honor that intent and ensure those contributions actually reach the veterans for whom the community believed it was giving.

The mental-health consequences can also be significant. For veterans already living with PTSD, depression or addiction, persistent noise, emergency activity and fear of violence can reinforce hypervigilance, anxiety, isolation and substance-use triggers. Veterans without those diagnoses are not immune. Prolonged exposure to instability, humiliation, sleep disruption and fear can itself damage mental well-being. Transitional housing should reduce those pressures and create the stability necessary for veterans to move forward.

The Problems at Borden Were Visible

The concerns surrounding Borden Avenue did not develop in isolation or outside the knowledge of government. NYPD records obtained through FOIL documented approximately 1,365 emergency-service events associated with 21-10 Borden Avenue between August 2024 and December 2025. Read more

These conditions existed under the noses of Manhattan VA Homeless Services and the New York City Department of Veterans' Services, while DHS remained responsible for the shelter and Institute for Community Living operated it. Veterans repeatedly raised concerns involving drugs, overdoses, violence, inadequate food, open showers, persistent noise and safety violations, inadequate transportation to the VA and the lack of meaningful recreation and community engagement.

That history matters because the next version of Borden Avenue appears likely to remain fundamentally within the same municipal shelter structure. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration has assembled a transition team to make Borden Avenue an all-veteran DHS shelter, even though Borden was already supposed to function as a residence specifically serving veterans.

Removing the whole of the GPD program and filling empty GPD cubicles with additional DHS-funded veterans does nothing to reform the facility. The same building remains. The same leaking roof remains. The ICL MICA structure remains, as well as the drugs, violence, noise, lack of food, privacy, and safety. If the only substantial change is that federal GPD beds become municipal DHS shelter beds, then changing the funding source should not be confused with changing the conditions. It just costs NYC taxpayers an additional $3.9 million a year in lost Veterans Affairs funding alone.

DHS Had Other Choices

New York City did not have to choose between continuing the troubled Borden model and eliminating VA transitional housing. DHS could have separated GPD from Borden and relocated the remaining program into another suitable property.

The City demonstrated during the asylum-seeker emergency that it could rapidly mobilize hotel and other shelter capacity when it considered the need urgent. As some of that capacity became available, DHS could have explored whether an appropriate vacant or underused hotel could accommodate a smaller veteran-specific transitional residence.

The City could also have advocated for converting the former Bellevue men's intake facility into a comprehensive veterans transitional center. A Manhattan location closer to the Manhattan VA could provide easier access to healthcare, transportation, employment and education while creating something New York City has never adequately provided: a transitional environment capable of serving men, women and veteran families within a veteran-centered system.

The VA's 40-bed offer could have provided the foundation. Forty safe, carefully managed beds with strong VA oversight, adequate food, transportation and clearly measured permanent-housing outcomes could have accomplished more for vulnerable veterans than a much larger program operating inside an unstable shelter environment. The answer to a troubled 154-bed program did not have to be zero beds.

Veterans Do Not Need Borden Avenue to Remain Connected to the VA

The end of GPD at Borden creates another important opportunity for veterans currently living there. Borden Avenue is a building operated within New York City's shelter system; it is not Veterans Affairs. Eligible veterans do not need to remain at Borden simply to pursue HUD-VASH, receive VA healthcare, seek disability benefits or access other VA programs.

Those benefits and services belong to the veteran, not to Borden Avenue. That distinction should become central to how Manhattan VA Homeless Services, DVS and veteran advocates approach the transition.

VA-eligible veterans should be empowered to request transfers when Borden is unsafe or inappropriate for their circumstances. They should be assisted in obtaining appropriate Safe Haven or other safer shelter placements when available while maintaining and expanding their connection with Manhattan VA Homeless Services, HUD-VASH and other federal resources.

This is especially important for older veterans, women veterans, veterans without substance-use histories and veterans whose disabilities make a chaotic congregate environment particularly harmful. No veteran should believe that leaving Borden Avenue means leaving Veterans Affairs behind, nor should a veteran be forced to choose between personal safety and access to VA resources.

Veterans Affairs Has an Opportunity to Start Over

The end of GPD at Borden Avenue can become a clean break for Veterans Affairs rather than the permanent end of transitional housing for New York City's veterans. Instead of attempting to preserve a relationship that has generated years of complaints, the VA could use the next year to identify a new community partner capable of operating a dedicated veteran transitional program.

Organizations such as Samaritan Daytop Village or Black Veterans for Social Justice could be evaluated alongside other qualified providers through a transparent process focused on safety, veteran experience, VA integration and permanent-housing outcomes. Neither organization should automatically receive an award, but New York City clearly has organizations beyond ICL capable of being considered for veteran transitional services.

A new GPD program should be designed around transition rather than institutional dependency. Veterans should receive safe temporary housing, adequate food, privacy, transportation and community while being connected directly to VA healthcare, HUD-VASH, disability benefits, education and employment resources. Clinical treatment should be readily available for veterans who need it without making mental illness or addiction the defining characteristic of the entire residence.

Success should ultimately be measured by how effectively veterans regain independence. A successful transitional program should help veterans stop needing shelter beds rather than create an institutional and financial incentive to keep those beds occupied.

Follow the Money—and the Mission

The financial structure surrounding Borden Avenue also deserves continued scrutiny. Approximately $644,821 was budgeted for counseling and another $1.58 million identified as a Mental Health Services Adjustment, compared with approximately $539,000 for food and only about $32,000 for client transportation. Read more

Veterans Affairs already operates one of America's largest integrated healthcare systems. A veteran transitional residence should not need to recreate that system inside a homeless shelter when eligible veterans can be transported and connected directly with VA specialists and programs. The comparatively small transportation allocation therefore raises a legitimate policy question about whether Borden's resources were structured around transitioning veterans or maintaining services within the DHS and ICL network.

There is also a significant taxpayer question surrounding the City's future plan for Borden. Filling approximately 154 former GPD spaces at roughly the City's reported single-adult shelter cost could represent more than $20,000 per day in gross municipal shelter expenditures, depending upon the applicable contracts and reimbursement structure. That figure should not be confused with profit to DHS or ICL, but it demonstrates why taxpayers deserve to understand the financial consequences of replacing federally supported transitional beds with City-funded shelter capacity.

Veterans should never become more financially valuable to a system because they remain homeless. Public funding should reward successful transitions into permanent housing, improved wellness and independence rather than the continued occupancy of shelter beds.

A Bittersweet Opportunity for All Veterans

The end of GPD at Borden Avenue is therefore both a loss and an opportunity. New York City is losing a federal transitional program capable of changing veterans' lives, but Veterans Affairs is also gaining the opportunity to separate itself from a facility that, in my view, stopped representing what GPD was intended to accomplish.

I know the potential of GPD because ten years ago, when I was homeless, the program helped save my life. My experience matters here not because this story should be about me, but because it demonstrates what should be possible for every veteran who enters transitional housing. A veteran should be able to enter at one of the lowest moments of his or her life, receive stability and support, reconnect with Veterans Affairs and eventually leave homelessness behind.

That opportunity should exist for the Vietnam veteran who loses his apartment after a fire, the widower who can no longer afford his rent after losing his spouse, the woman veteran seeking safety, the veteran family facing eviction, the veteran recovering from addiction, the veteran living with PTSD and the veteran who has never needed behavioral-health treatment. Their histories and needs may be different, but none should have to surrender dignity in exchange for shelter.

New York City had opportunities to preserve GPD. Veterans Affairs now has an opportunity to rebuild it, while veterans currently at Borden have an opportunity to demand safer placements and direct access to the federal resources they earned through service.

The lesson from Borden Avenue should not be that GPD failed. It should be that veterans deserve a better GPD program—one built around safety, dignity, VA access and permanent housing rather than around a particular building, diagnosis or service provider.

The end of GPD at Borden Avenue should therefore not be the end of New York City's commitment to transitional programs for veterans. It should become an opportunity to finally build a system that recognizes veterans as individuals, protects the most vulnerable among them and measures success by something far more important than occupied beds.

Bitter Sweet Ending printable pdf (7 pages)

Timothy Pena is a service-connected disabled Navy veteran for PTSD and has written about his experiences with mental health, homelessness, and the judicial system. Pena initially visited NYC to collaborate on a documentary for veteran suicide but decided to stay after realizing he would rather be homeless in NYC than dead in Phoenix.