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City veterans agency details outreach, benefits help for older veterans and flags gaps in reach
Summary
Department of Veterans Services told the City Council about expanded outreach, new technology and peer programs for older veterans while raising limits from a small staff and uneven self‑identification that leave many veterans unreached.
Commissioner James Hendon of the New York City Department of Veterans Services told a joint City Council hearing on Oct. 29 that the agency is expanding outreach and services for older veterans while continuing to face staffing and budget constraints.
Hendon said DVS runs programs that connect older veterans to VA benefits, emergency rental assistance and home‑and‑community mental health services; maintains a network of Department of Veterans Service veteran service officers and Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion liaisons in all 51 council districts; and funds peer‑support programming through the Joseph P. Dwyer initiative. "It's scalable. And for many older New Yorkers, it's the difference between not asking and finally getting help," Hendon said of the agency's volunteer check‑in effort, Mission Vet Check.
The testimony summarized multiple DVS efforts that target aging veterans: in‑person veteran resource centers in each borough, a claims team that assists with VA…
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