Borden Avenue Veterans' Shelter (NYC) Report 2026

Part 8: Borden Avenue Veterans' Shelter

Timothy Pena

Founder/Veterans Justice Project

September 2026

Program Operations and Conditions

Introduction

The Borden Avenue Veterans’ Residence (BAVR) at 21-10 Borden Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, occupies a distinctive position within New York City's response to Veteran homelessness. The records reviewed for this report identify Borden Avenue as the City's only federally funded Department of Veterans Affairs Grant and Per Diem (GPD) transitional residence. The facility is operated by the Institute for Community Living (ICL) under contract with the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS), while VA maintains responsibility for the federal GPD component and associated program requirements.

Parts 2 through 7 establish the broader standards governing Veteran homelessness, vulnerable populations, GPD, protection from exploitation, and Veteran participation. This Part does not repeat those standards. Instead, it applies them directly to Borden Avenue's day-to-day operations and asks whether the facility's actual structure, resources, conditions, and utilization support its transitional purpose.

The records show that Borden Avenue provides important services, including temporary residence, meals, case management, behavioral-health services, employment assistance, and connections with outside resources. They also identify operational concerns involving GPD enrollment, safety, physical conditions, privacy, nutrition, transportation, community access, and administrative responsibility.

A Dual Federal and Municipal Structure

Borden Avenue is unusual because it functions within overlapping systems. DHS contracts with ICL for operation of the facility, ICL manages day-to-day services, and VA provides federal GPD support for qualifying transitional beds. Other contractors and organizations may control security, food, transportation, healthcare, housing, or specialized services.

These overlapping responsibilities can provide access to substantial resources, but they also create an operational risk. A Veteran may encounter several organizations without knowing which one is responsible for resolving a particular problem. The practical effectiveness of Borden Avenue therefore depends not only upon the existence of services but upon coordination among the entities delivering them.

For purposes of this Part, several operational areas require particular attention:

• GPD enrollment and utilization of authorized capacity.
• Safety and emergency activity.
• Physical conditions, privacy, and dignity.
• Food and nutrition.
• Transportation and access to VA resources.
• Housing progress and length of transition.
• Community and outside-provider access.
• Clearly assigned responsibility for operational problems.

These issues are examined here as Borden-specific operational questions. Detailed analysis of emergency data, finances, ICL, DHS, the Modified Therapeutic Community model, and governmental oversight is reserved for later Parts.

GPD Capacity and Enrollment

One of the clearest quantitative issues identified in the Borden Avenue records concerns utilization of federally supported GPD capacity. A VA Freedom of Information Act response reviewed for this report identified 154 authorized GPD beds. Enrollment records for the summer of 2024 showed 124 Veterans enrolled on June 1, 118 on July 1, and 107 on August 1.

Enrollment therefore declined by 17 Veterans over two months. By August, reported enrollment was 47 below the authorized GPD capacity.

These figures require careful interpretation. They do not establish that 47 physical beds were immediately vacant and available, that 47 eligible Veterans were improperly denied admission, or that ICL or VA intentionally underutilized the program. Differences may reflect referrals, eligibility determinations, turnover, program-model requirements, temporary availability, or other administrative circumstances not established by the census figures.

The figures nevertheless justify examination because Borden Avenue represents New York City's only GPD transitional residence of this type. If authorized capacity is not being utilized while eligible Veterans remain homeless or in general shelters, VA and participating agencies should be able to explain why.

Relevant questions include referral volume, acceptance and denial patterns, eligibility determinations, waiting periods, program-model matching, and whether Veterans are being directed elsewhere despite potentially available GPD capacity.

Safety and Residential Stability

Safety is among the most significant Borden-specific operational concerns. Project records identify approximately 1,365 emergency calls associated with 21-10 Borden Avenue between August 2024 and December 2025, including ambulance requests, assaults, disputes, injuries, emotionally disturbed persons, suspected overdoses, unconscious individuals, and other emergencies. Separate arrest records also document arrest activity associated with the address.

Part 9 examines those records in detail, and they should not be duplicated here. Their operational significance is narrower: the volume and nature of emergency activity warrant examination of whether the residence consistently provides conditions conducive to stabilization.

Emergency calls are not themselves evidence of provider wrongdoing. A large congregate facility serving Veterans with medical, behavioral-health, disability, and social needs can reasonably experience emergencies, and calling police or EMS may represent an appropriate response. Arrest likewise does not establish guilt or conviction.

The relevant operational questions are whether recurring patterns are identified, serious events are reviewed, appropriate corrective actions follow, and conditions improve. A transitional residence should not be evaluated according to whether emergencies occur at all, but according to how effectively foreseeable risks are reduced and Veterans are protected.

Physical Conditions, Privacy, and Dignity

For the period of residence, Borden Avenue functions as the Veteran's temporary home. Veterans sleep, maintain personal hygiene, store belongings, manage medication, attend appointments, meet case managers, and prepare for permanent housing while living within the facility.

Project materials identify concerns involving the congregate physical environment, showers, privacy, sanitation, maintenance, and other facility conditions. These concerns should be assessed through inspections, maintenance records, resident complaints, photographs where appropriately authenticated, and direct observation rather than through allegation alone.

Privacy deserves particular attention because Veterans may be managing disabilities, behavioral-health conditions, medications, trauma histories, sexual orientation or gender-related concerns, and confidential medical information. Congregate housing inevitably limits some privacy, but those limitations should not unnecessarily compromise dignity or safety.

The broader question involving access for women Veterans is addressed in Part 3 and should not be repeated here. For Borden Avenue operations, the relevant issue is whether the physical environment is appropriate for the population the facility actually serves.

Food, Transportation, and Daily Resources

Financial records reviewed for the project identify approximately $539,000 for food services, $32,000 for transportation, and $1.09 million for contracted security. The reviewed budget also identified no dedicated allocation for recreation programming or client stipends.

Those figures do not independently establish adequate or inadequate service delivery. A zero-dollar recreation line, for example, does not prove that no recreation occurs, and the transportation allocation alone does not establish whether Veterans can or cannot reach necessary appointments.

The figures become relevant when compared with resident experience. Project records describe concerns regarding meal quality and nutritional value, transportation to VA appointments and services, recreation, and practical resources available to residents.

Transportation is especially significant because Borden Avenue is in Long Island City while major VA medical and homeless-service resources are located in Manhattan. Veterans may need repeated access to medical appointments, benefits assistance, housing appointments, employment opportunities, VSOs, and other services.

Nutrition similarly should be evaluated through actual meal quality, dietary adequacy, resident feedback, medical needs, and food-service performance rather than expenditure alone.

Housing Progress and Transitional Operations

Part 5 establishes permanent housing as a central GPD outcome, while later Parts examine outcome measurement and data reliability. The operational issue at Borden Avenue is whether housing work begins promptly and progresses consistently during residence.

Project materials identify concerns involving housing delays and the number of separate systems Veterans may have to navigate. A Veteran may interact with ICL, DHS, VA, HUD-VASH, NYCHA, housing providers, benefits programs, and other agencies. Multiple resources can strengthen transition, but fragmented responsibility can also slow it.

Operational review should therefore be able to determine who is responsible for each Veteran's housing progress, what barriers remain unresolved, which agency controls the next required action, and how long that action has been pending.

The appropriate measure is not simply whether case-management meetings occur. It is whether administrative activity produces measurable progress toward permanent housing.

Community Access

Part 7 addresses peer participation and community integration as general transitional principles. At Borden Avenue, the narrower operational question is whether outside Veteran and community organizations can meaningfully connect with residents.

Project records identify concerns regarding access by Veteran organizations, advocates, volunteers, and other community groups. External access must be balanced with privacy, security, and appropriate residential controls, but unnecessary isolation can reduce opportunities for Veterans to establish relationships that continue after discharge.

Useful external connections may involve VSOs, peer mentors, employment organizations, legal providers, financial institutions, educational programs, and recreational or civic organizations. The objective should be controlled and appropriate access rather than unrestricted entry or institutional isolation.

Operational Accountability

Borden Avenue's most persistent structural challenge may be determining responsibility across VA, DHS, ICL, and contractors. The source records describe concerns involving food, security, transportation, housing, physical conditions, and outside access that may involve different entities.

Those distinctions matter for contracts and regulation, but they matter less to the Veteran experiencing the problem. If transportation fails, an appointment may be missed regardless of which entity controls the budget. If housing paperwork stalls, the Veteran remains in transitional housing regardless of which organization possesses the document.

Effective operation therefore requires identifiable responsibility for each major function and a process for escalating unresolved problems. Fragmented administration should not result in fragmented accountability.

Overall Assessment

Borden Avenue provides an important Veteran-specific resource in New York City. The records show that it provides housing and multiple supportive services while operating within substantial federal, municipal, and nonprofit systems. Those functions should be recognized rather than allowing identified concerns to obscure the services that the program does provide.

At the same time, the Borden-specific record supports closer examination of:

• Utilization of authorized GPD capacity.
• Safety and recurring emergency activity.
• Physical conditions and privacy.
• Food and nutritional adequacy.
• Transportation and practical access to VA services.
• Housing progress and interagency coordination.
• Appropriate outside and community access.
• Assignment of operational responsibility.

These questions do not establish regulatory violations by themselves. They identify operational areas where objective performance information is necessary to determine whether the facility is functioning as intended.

Conclusion

Borden Avenue should be evaluated according to its actual operations rather than solely by its designation as either a shelter or a GPD residence. The records demonstrate that it provides Veterans with temporary housing, meals, case management, behavioral-health services, employment assistance, and connections with other resources. They also document substantial questions involving enrollment, safety, facility conditions, privacy, food, transportation, housing coordination, community access, and responsibility among participating organizations.

Later Parts of this report examine emergency activity, finances, ICL, DHS, program-model questions, City agencies, and governmental oversight in greater detail. Part 8 establishes the operational foundation for those analyses: what happens inside and around Borden Avenue ultimately determines whether policies, contracts, federal funding, and services translate into a workable residential experience for Veterans.

For that reason, operational performance should be measured through conditions and results rather than the existence of programs on paper. Authorized capacity should be explainable, housing work should produce progress, transportation should provide practical access, food should meet resident needs, safety concerns should generate review and corrective action, and Veterans should be able to identify who is responsible when an essential service fails.

Borden Avenue's importance as New York City's only GPD transitional residence of this type makes those questions especially consequential. The appropriate standard is not perfection, nor should every emergency or complaint be treated as evidence of failure. The standard is whether the residence consistently converts substantial public resources and multiple service systems into a safe, functional, accountable environment in which Veterans can progress from homelessness toward permanent housing.