REPORT TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

Committee on Veterans (2026)

Part 2 — Veterans: Service, Eligibility, and the Transition From Homelessness


Veterans Are Not a Single Population

Veterans experiencing homelessness cannot be treated as a single population with identical needs. They differ by military service, age, gender, discharge status, disability, health, income, family circumstances, justice involvement, and eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs programs. Some enter homelessness because of unemployment, housing costs, or family disruption. Others experience housing instability following military separation, hospitalization, incarceration, disability, trauma, or prolonged economic hardship.

These differences are fundamental to evaluating any program serving homeless veterans. Homelessness describes a housing condition; it does not, by itself, establish a psychiatric diagnosis, substance-use disorder, or need for intensive clinical treatment.

One veteran may require substantial behavioral-health treatment. Another may already be receiving appropriate healthcare through VA and need only temporary housing, transportation, employment assistance, benefits navigation, or help securing an apartment. A justice-involved veteran may need assistance reconnecting with VA, satisfying supervision requirements, obtaining identification, and finding employment. A recently separated service member may primarily need help adjusting to civilian employment and housing.

A veteran-centered system begins by identifying these differences rather than attempting to fit every veteran into the same institutional model.

 

Veteran Status and VA Eligibility

An important distinction throughout this report is the difference between being a veteran and qualifying for a particular VA benefit.

Military service does not automatically create identical eligibility for every VA program. Eligibility may depend upon the benefit involved, character and circumstances of discharge, period or length of service, disability status, income, homelessness criteria, or other statutory and regulatory requirements. A veteran may qualify for one VA service while not qualifying for another.

This distinction has practical importance in New York City's homeless-services system.

Veterans who qualify for federal services should be identified and connected to those earned resources as early as possible. Veterans who do not qualify for a particular VA program should not simply cease to be treated as veterans. State, City, nonprofit, and community organizations can continue providing veteran-centered assistance appropriate to their circumstances.

The objective should be coordination rather than exclusion.


The Purpose of Transitional Services

For veterans eligible for the Grant and Per Diem Program, transitional housing should provide more than a bed. It should create a bridge between homelessness and permanent housing.

The existing report identifies services that can support this transition, including housing assistance, employment, education, healthcare, benefits navigation, transportation, legal assistance, independent-living skills, behavioral-health treatment when appropriate, and community reintegration.

Importantly, the materials reviewed for this report identify multiple GPD models, including Bridge Housing, Service-Intensive, Low Demand, Clinical Treatment, Hospital to Housing, and Transition in Place. Clinical Treatment is specifically directed toward veterans with mental-health and/or substance-use diagnoses participating in clinical services.

That distinction reinforces a central finding of this report: clinical treatment is one component of the GPD continuum; it should not define every veteran participating in GPD.


Maintaining the Veteran's Connection to VA

When a VA-eligible veteran enters a municipal shelter or community transitional program, that placement should function as a bridge to federal resources rather than a substitute for them.

Depending upon eligibility, veterans may have access to VA healthcare, disability compensation, pensions, HUD-VASH, Veteran Readiness and Employment, Veterans Justice Outreach, behavioral-health services, military sexual trauma services, and other specialized programs.

Community providers should facilitate those relationships rather than unnecessarily interrupt them.

A veteran who already has VA physicians, counselors, specialists, benefits representatives, or housing resources should not be required to rebuild those relationships merely because the veteran has entered homelessness.

 


Safety, Responsibility, and Independence

Transitional housing must also provide sufficient stability for veterans to work toward independence. Veterans cannot reasonably be expected to concentrate on employment, healthcare, housing applications, or education while continuously worrying about their personal safety.

Veteran-centered housing should therefore provide predictable rules, protection from violence and exploitation, reasonable privacy, appropriate supervision, grievance procedures, and opportunities to raise concerns.

Veterans also carry responsibilities. Successful transitional housing requires reasonable compliance with program rules, respect for other residents, participation in individualized planning, and meaningful progress toward permanent housing.

The purpose, however, is not institutional conformity for its own sake. Structure should prepare veterans for independence.

 

Conclusion

Veterans should remain the central measure of every program examined in this report. Success is not simply the number of beds occupied or services delivered. It is whether veterans become permanently housed, maintain healthcare, increase financial stability, reconnect with their communities, and ultimately no longer require transitional housing.

The veteran should not be forced to fit the limitations of the system. The system should coordinate federal, State, City, and community resources around the individual veteran and the veteran's actual needs.

 


Sources

  • 38 C.F.R. Part 61 — VA Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program.
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program guidance and eligibility requirements.
  • VA GPD Recipient Guide — Transitional housing, supportive services, program requirements, and veteran outcomes.
  • GPD Eligibility and Criteria materials — Veteran status, homelessness, eligibility, and transitional-service requirements.
  • VA Homeless Programs — Veteran housing, healthcare, benefits, employment, and permanent-housing resources.