At the first Veterans Affairs committee meeting of Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) of 2022, one of the main goals of the meeting was to find out if the issues raised by Fordham Village residents at previous meetings had been addressed. As reported, residents at Fordham village had complained about a lack of cleanliness, a lack of heat and hot water on a consistent basis, an out-of-service elevator, high staff turnover, and loss of veteran staff over time.

 

Located at 355 East 194^th Street in Fordham Manor, Fordham Village was the first veterans’ community residence of its kind in New York City when it opened in 2011, housing 55 homeless or at-risk veterans in individual studio apartments. The project is co-funded by New York City Department of Housing, Preservation & Development (HPD), federal and State aid, and private donors. It is managed through Manhattan-based nonprofit, the Jericho Project.

 

Tyrone Matthews, a resident at Fordham Village, said during the CB7 meeting, held via Zoom on Jan. 19, that everything was “great,” but acknowledged that residents were still working on some in-house issues. In response, Chad Royer, Veterans Affairs committee chair, asked what fixes had been put in place since the last meeting was held with Tori Lyon, CEO of Jericho.

 

Matthews said the elevators hadn’t been out of order for a long time. However, he also stressed the need to bring the whole community together, amid the ongoing pandemic. “We just can’t get together in life and just deal with these things,” he said, opening up about his own personal struggles. “I deal with a lot of depression and anxiety,” he said. “It hurts. We just need help.”

 

Amjad Mujaahid, another Fordham Village resident, added that since the last meeting with Lyon, Jericho hired one new social worker to work with the veterans. “They don’t have [a] proper staff in order to deal with the volume of veterans who are in need of services,” he said. “They have not yet reinstituted programming, in terms of one-on-one counseling or group sessions for those veterans who might need that support.”

 

Mujaahid said the reason nothing had materialized yet, was due to the latest wave of COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant, which was limiting in person gatherings. He said the issue needed to be addressed by not only facilitating virtual opportunities to meet, but also by organizing in person counseling sessions in well-ventilated areas. He concluded his remarks by succinctly summarizing the problems that remained. “What Mr. Tyrone is speaking about are some of the challenges many veterans are still experiencing due to lack of services on site,” he said.

 

Norwood News reached out to Lyon for comment on progress on the issues raised by the Fordham Village veterans. She responded, saying, “We were actually planning to start up an art therapy group and a yoga group in January. We put those on hold because of omicron. We haven’t had a lot of interest in the virtual events, but we can work on that. We want to talk with tenants more to see what kind of virtual events they would like.”

 

Regarding the staffing issues raised, she said, “We have a staff of about a dozen people. There is somebody there 24/7. We just recently hired a second maintenance person. He started last week. We have a veteran peer mentor that we are recruiting for. We used to have it, but now we are bringing it back, because the veterans asked for it. He will be split between Fordham Village and Kingsbridge Terrace.”

 

Jean Hill, another CB7 committee member, asked Mujaahid if his building had reached out to District 11 City Councilman Eric Dinowitz, since he was the former chair and still sits on the City Council veterans committee, to get some more help in terms of social workers, and people who could potentially help veterans deal with PTSD. Mujaahid responded, saying they had reached out to his office, adding that their goal was to schedule a meeting with the councilman, who serves on the City Council’s Veterans committee, to talk specifically about what is happening at Fordham Village, as well as at similar veterans’ residential locations at 2701 Kingsbridge Terrace in Kingsbridge Heights, and 2065 Walton Avenue in Fordham Heights.

 

Norwood News followed up with the councilman who responded, saying, “Our veterans made one of the biggest sacrifices they could ever make by serving our country. They deserve to be provided with world-class services, especially towards their needs that resulted from their service,” He added, “As former chair of the Veterans Committee on the City Council, I will work collaboratively with the advocates and the Council Member for Fordham Village to ensure the needs of our veterans are met.” (District 15 City Councilman Oswald Feliz is the local representative for the residence.)

 

In terms of other topics, discussed at the meeting, Royer briefly talked about the recent changes to the laws regarding the application process for disabled veterans’ mobile food vending permits, admitting that he wasn’t sure what had prompted the law change. “We can try to reach out to someone who can clarify the meaning of this recent change,” he said. “I am interested in finding out.”

 

In fact, veteran applicants now no longer need to also hold a currently valid general vendor license from the City’s Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), now the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. The change was made to make the permit requirements for disabled veterans the same as those for general food vendors who are not veterans.

 

Following this discussion, Royer introduced Ashton Stewart, the manager of the SAGEVets program, as a guest speaker. According to the SAGE website, Stewart “entered the U.S. Navy through the Delayed Entry Program and served during the First Gulf War.” He started his presentation sharing that he had been with SAGE since May 2018, and that the position was the first veterans’ job he has had since leaving active service.

 

SAGE is the nation’s oldest advocacy group for older LGBTQ+ adults. In 2014, the group started a program specific to veterans. “There’s a lot of trauma from those individuals that doesn’t fit in the same box as the other veterans and the trauma that they have experienced,” Stewart said. “This is due, of course, to the anti-LGBT policy that existed. Even during, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ we were starting to break away from those anti-LGBT policies. It was hard for a lot of people,” he added.

Stewart said the purpose of SAGEVets was to find those individuals and try to bring them into the veteran space. He said the group talks to such veterans about getting access to compensation and benefits, as well as providing them with legal support. “It’s tough finding veterans who aren’t in the space,” he said. “It’s tough, especially now with the mental trauma that we are all experiencing on top of just trying to live our lives. Mental health, housing, and home healthcare have been the hardest things for us to navigate right now.”

 

Another thing SAGEVets does is share the stories of their members, with their permission. “A lot of these stories are very powerful,” he said. “Some of these individuals haven’t talked or even thought much about their experience for over 30 years. We just try to help them heal.” One of the ways they do that is through the Restoration of Honor Act, which was signed into law in New York State in 2019.

 

The legislation is designed to help veterans who may have been discharged for reasons relating to their mental health, sexual orientation, or gender identity, and allows for appeals to the State of New York to help them get an upgrade to an honorable discharge. Veterans who receive an honorable discharge are eligible for health and other benefits. “We have helped several veterans get meritorious applications through,” Stewart said. “The healing that comes along with that is just incredible.”

 

He wrapped up his presentation by mentioning one of SAGEVet’s upcoming events. On Feb. 28, the group is partnering with Volunteers of Legal Services (VOLS), a pro-bono legal service that helps New York City’s underserved communities. Their attorneys will help veterans prepare advanced directives. These are written statements of a person’s wishes regarding medical treatments, often including a living will, and are made to ensure the person’s wishes are carried out should the person be unable to communicate them to a doctor. “Having these documents in place is super helpful for your loved ones,” Stewart said.

 

Following Stewart’s presentation, Jimmy Santiago, a resident at Kingsbridge Terrace veterans’ residence, spoke about the issues there. He shared that they have only one case manager and super, and that Adrianna Rodriguez-Baptiste, CPO at Jericho, comes to the residence once every two weeks to check on the building. “During my meeting with Tory Lyon, I let her know that we can’t keep[ing] throwing band-aids on something and saying it’s fixed,” Santiago said.

 

He then proposed they ask veterans in the building who are combat engineers if they know anyone in the business who would and could carry out the structural repairs that were needed. “A lot has to do with them [Jericho] not spending the money when needed,” he said. “When it [is] needed to fix the problem properly, they would rather do a patch job.”

 

Royer asked Santiago if his building was experiencing lack of heat or elevator shutdowns during the winter. He said it was not only a lack of heat. In some cases, he said there was no heat. In response, Royer suggested making some 311 calls. He also indicated that he would be willing to visit the building.

 

Again, Norwood News asked Jericho for their comments on the structural and other problems at Kingsbridge Terrace. Lyon said, “That building has had a lot of problems since it opened. Although it is one of our newer buildings, it has more maintenance issues than our older buildings.” She added, “Unfortunately, I think a lot of the systems that were put in place were intended to be more up-to-date and energy-efficient have not worked as well or been reliable.  We are working very hard to manage and correct that.”

 

In terms of heating, she acknowledged the tenants did sometimes complain to Jericho or to HPD about it. “HPD has come out a few times, and we haven’t gotten any violations around heat in the past year,” Lyon said. “That said, sometimes the building may be legally heated, but that doesn’t mean it is hot enough for you. Some people want their rooms to be very warm. The standard may be that it has to be one temperature, and people want it at a higher temperature. That’s one of the things we are looking into, seeing how we can boost the heat.”

 

In the wake of the Twin Parks North West fire tragedy on Jan. 9, caused by a space heater, in which 17 people were killed, including 8 children, new city council legislation put forward by District 15 City Councilman Oswald Feliz, is expected to raise the minimum heating requirements for buildings in New York City from 62 degrees to 69 degrees, during the winter season, as reported.

 

Meanwhile, regarding 311 complaints by Kingsbridge Terrace residents, Lyon said it was better for tenants to contact Jericho first to allow them to address the complaints more quickly. “If they are not getting the repair done, or somebody to react to it, it is a valid next step [thereafter] to call 311,” she said. “We want to hold ourselves accountable to make sure that it is a pleasant place to live, safe, and comfortable.”

 

The meeting concluded with Royer sharing that he didn’t yet have any additional information on the proposal to restore the World War I monument on Mosholu Parkway.