Lawmakers Blow Past Security To Visit Homeless Veterans Shelter in Transgender Funding Fight

Two Queens lawmakers found unsanitary conditions and residents complaining of poor food and drug use Thursday when they brushed past city employees to tour the homeless shelter at the center of a dispute between Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration and the federal government.The city turned down funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence, asserting last week that the Trump administration would have required the shelter to turn away transgender veterans.City Councilmember Julie Won, who represents Long Island City, arrived at the shelter around 10:30 a.m. to conduct an oversight visit, but employees at the shelter told her she had to schedule a tour. Ms. Won then called in Councilmember Phil Wong, whose district adjoins hers, for backup, according Mr. Wong’s chief of staff, Dan Kurzyna. They were once again denied entry, but eventually walked in over the staff’s objections.Once inside, the lawmakers said they encountered “serious leaks, tarps throughout portions of the facility, including near veterans sleeping on cots, and heard repeated complaints about poor food, violence, alleged drug activity and other conditions residents say have gone inadequately addressed.”“Our veterans served this country and deserve dignity, safe conditions and accountability from their government,” they said in a joint statement, denouncing “the City and its contracted providers” for “putting up roadblocks when elected officials are carrying out legitimate oversight and investigation.”The surprise visit follows the city’s withdrawal from a federal grant program that previously funded 154 beds at the 243-bed shelter. City council officials estimate the funding the shelter previously received from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to be about $4 million annually.Mr. Kurzyna, who accompanied Mr. Wong to the shelter, previously worked for former council member Bob Holden, with whom he said he visited the Borden Avenue shelter for both scheduled and unannounced visits. He told The New York Sun he was “astonished” at the shelter’s refusal to let Mr. Wong and Ms. Won enter.“Nowhere in the City Charter does it say we have to reach out to the Mayor’s Office and get the red carpet tour,” he said.Representatives for the city Department of Social Services did not respond to a request for comment.The city declined a reduced award under the department’s Grant and Per Diem program this year, New York City Department of Social Services spokeswoman Neha Sharma said in a statement to the City Reporter last week. The city also objected to requirements “that the agency discriminate against certain veterans by excluding transgender veterans from seeking shelter in VA-funded beds,” she said.Veterans Affairs spokesman Quinn Slaven told The New York Sun that all grant awardees must adhere to the department’s terms and conditions, including adhering to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order includes a provision that requires agencies to “ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”

Lawmakers Blow Past Security To Visit Homeless Veterans Shelter in Transgender Funding Fight

Lawmakers Blow Past Security To Visit Homeless Veterans Shelter in Transgender Funding Fight

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