Timothy Pena initially traveled to NYC at the invitation of RIP Medical Debt founder and U.S. Navy Veteran Jerry Ashton to collaborate for his project, Veterans Mission Possible. Soon after arriving, Tim decided he would rather be homeless in NYC than commit suicide in Phoenix and spent five months in a shelter before obtaining his HUD/VASH voucher for supportive housing while detailing his journey from homeless to homeness with a series of articles called, 'Be the Story'. He has testified before the NYS Department of Veterans Affairs, is a member of the NYC Veterans Task Force and Military Veterans in Journalism, while founding The Forgotten Veteran non-profit. Email: Timothy Pena
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Security for the VA transitional program nearly twice cost of food for homeless veterans at $6.60 a day
Timothy Pena, veteran and journalist:
“Writing saved my life”
INTERVIEW SEEN FROM THE US. Timothy Pena is an American veteran who has been in prison and homeless. He helps his peers to reintegrate and access social assistance. He also became a journalist, to help make America and the media understand the plight of veterans.
HUD/VASH Saga Continues
Dec 01, 2022
HUD/VASH Saga Continues
Timothy Pena
December 1, 2022
“VA's Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program is offered annually (as funding permits) by the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund community agencies providing services to Veterans experiencing homelessness. The purpose of the transitional housing component of the program is to promote the development and provision of supportive housing and services with the goal of helping homeless Veterans achieve residential stability, increase their skill levels and/or income, and obtain greater self-determination. Additionally, the GPD Program offers Case Management grants to support housing retention for Veterans who were previously homeless and are transitioning to permanent housing.”
Since arriving into the VA GPD program, very little of this has taken place. As I have written before, the HUD/VASH program is designed to assist and promote supportive housing, yet I and other veterans are waiting months, even years while the VA continues to delay the process with red tape. This past Monday I received an email from a case worker;
HUD/VASH: “Congratulations. NYCHA alerted today of your eligibility for the Section 8 program. Attached is your voucher, pin letter and supplemental documents, some applicable to Citileaf.”
The coveted HUD/VASH voucher had finally arrived. The next day I dropped by Citileaf and met what will hopefully be my new clinical director, Jacky, to complete the lease and initiate any supportive services I will be receiving and to pick up the keys. Not so fast cowboy. For at least the third time, Citileaf is having to again submit documentation while everyone waits again on HUD/VASH.
Citileaf: “These documents are for NYCHA! It is the “Section 8 Property Owner Registration Form” which goes directly from HUD-VASH who sends immediately to NYCHA.”
Up to this point there have been no less than three occasions when HUD/VASH required agencies to run everthing step through them, sat on it for weeks, before sending it on to the next agency. It took three weeks to schedule a introductory meeting when I was told that it was a lengthy process that they’re responsible for. A veteran that leaves the GPD program out of frustration has no place to go but onto the street. Some are never heard from again. We are abandoned to wait in a chaotic and sometimes violent homeless shelter without access to decent food, sleep, and/or resources.
Neither the HUD/VASH program nor the Institute for Community Living seem too interested in fulfilling their obligations to the veteran or the taxpayers. And since we have no guarantee as whether HUD/VASH will provide housing; combine that with prison-like conditions at the Borden Ave Veterans Residence, and the most at-risk veterans are the most likely to leave (escape) never to be heard from again. I have no doubt that a good portion of those veterans are already dead.
