Veterans at NYC Homeless Shelter Could Lose Funding; City Clashes With VA Over Trump Orders

For years, the program has funded beds at the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence in Long Island City, NY, serving more than 200 veterans.

New York City has pulled out of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program that has funded shelter for homeless veterans at a Queens residence for nearly two decades.

The city's Department of Homeless Services confirmed it left the VA's Grant and Per Diem program, or GPD, on Oct. 1, coinciding with the start of the federal fiscal year and next three-year grant cycle. It causes uncertainty in continued federal funding for more than 200 veterans.

Both New York City and the VA give sharply different accounts of why the funding has ceased.

For years, the program has funded beds at the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence in Long Island City, serving more than 200 veterans through a mix of federal and city money, as first reported by local news outlet The City Reporter.

Military.com reached out for comment to the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the mayor’s office, and the VA for comment on the withdrawal and its effect on veterans at the shelter. None immediately responded to requests for comment.

New York City's Explanation

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Neha Sharma told The City Reporter that the decision came down to conditions attached to the grant.

The city applied for the funding, but the VA offered only “a small portion” of its previous awards while requiring compliance with executive orders from President Donald Trump.

According to Sharma, those requirements would have prevented the city from placing transgender male veterans in VA-funded beds at the shelter, which she said would force the city to discriminate against transgender veterans.

DHS said the offered amount was about 30% of what it had previously received under the program, though it did not provide a specific dollar figure.

Why the VA Says Funding Was Reduced

VA spokesperson Quinn Slaven told The City Reporter that the city’s allegation about transgender veterans was “false,” adding that the agency “determined that it could not justify a larger award” after evaluating the Borden Avenue facility.

Slaven said the VA distributes awards based on past performance, demonstrated need, and the ability to provide high-quality services to veterans—all factors that informed the agency’s evaluation of Borden Avenue.

The two explanations are difficult to reconcile, and neither has been independently verified. To the city, the smaller award was tied to a discriminatory condition it refused to accept. To the VA, it was a judgment about the facility.

The Borden Avenue residence has drawn criticism for years. Veterans and advocates have accused the city of mismanaging the site, describing problems that include overcrowding, violence and blocked housing placements.

Some of those claims are now part of a federal lawsuit against DHS and its nonprofit operator, the Institute for Community Living. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

The VA said its decision followed an evaluation of the site, though it did not detail what that evaluation found. DHS has said it disputes characterizations of the shelter as poorly run.

Two-Hundred Vulnerable Veterans

For the roughly 200 veterans at Borden Avenue, the immediate effects are unclear.

DHS said in the days leading up to the lapsed funding that services at the facility had not been disrupted. New York City also operates under a decades-old right-to-shelter mandate.

This generally requires shelters to provide a bed for anyone who needs one. Hence, losing GPD funding does not, by itself, mean veterans would be turned away.

At stake is the federal transitional housing money and the wraparound services that come with the GPD program, designed to move veterans from homelessness into permanent housing rather than simply provide a bed.

The city has not resolved how it will replace that funding and those services, if at all.

The Grant and Per Diem program, created under a 2006 federal law, funds community organizations nationwide that provide transitional housing and support services to veterans experiencing homelessness.