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Medford veterans services seeks steady FY26 budget; director highlights outreach, housing challenges and digitization goals
Summary
Veronica Shaw, director of Veterans Services, said her office's FY26 request is $448,716 (a $4,113 increase) to cover step and contractual pay growth; she outlined outreach programs, housing outreach challenges for veterans, a landlord incentive program with low uptake and plans to digitize files and expand senior outreach.
Veronica Shaw, director of Veterans Services, told the Committee of the Whole on April 30 that the veteran services office is proposing a FY26 operating budget of $448,716, an increase of $4,112.56 from FY25, driven by contractual step and salary adjustments.
Shaw described multiple outreach and community events in the past year, including Veterans Day programs, a veterans expo at Tufts University and a local chamber event to help veterans navigate VA health-care online systems. She said those activities were low-cost to the city but increased service visibility.
On housing, Shaw said the city's landlord-incentive program had been approved but had not yet yielded housing matches: "I still have not been able to make any connections between landlords and veterans," she said, noting that rent levels remain a barrier even with the incentive. She said she is collaborating with veterans'service officers in neighboring cities to explore regional approaches to housing assistance and homeless-veteran outreach.
Shaw also described office productivity steps and space improvements: she said staff reconfigured the office to make it ADA-compliant at no cost by rearranging furniture, and she outlined a year-long project to digitize the office's paper files to improve veteran access and continuity for future officers.
Councilors praised Shaw's outreach and resourcefulness and suggested pairing veteran coffee hours with resident-services listening sessions. Shaw said her goals for the year do not require additional funding beyond the small requested increase but emphasized the need to raise program participation and outreach.
No vote on the veterans services budget was recorded at the April 30 session; councilors encouraged the director to return with continued progress reports.
