{"id":83954,"date":"2025-12-29T21:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T21:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/83954\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T21:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T21:23:30","slug":"ed-how-new-mayor-mamdani-can-get-veterans-services-right-amnewyork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/83954\/","title":{"rendered":"ed | How new Mayor Mamdani can get veterans\u2019 services right \u2013 amNewYork"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"A\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A soldier lays a wreath at the NYC Veterans Day Parade in Midtown on Nov. 11, 2025. <\/p>\n

Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will take office on Thursday<\/a> amid mounting financial challenges and an ambitious progressive agenda. He inherits a city with an affordability crisis, intergovernmental landmines and the immediate task of building a capable administration, all while turning campaign promises into tangible results.<\/p>\n

Those results will be especially urgent for veterans and their families, a community that has long been promised support but has far too often been treated as \u201clow-hanging fruit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Last month, the mayor-elect skipped the city\u2019s Veterans Day parade to visit the Bronx<\/a>, where he spent time listening to veterans and hearing their concerns. Afterwards, he told them, \u201cThe days of thanking you today and forgetting you tomorrow have to come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

That line resonates because it speaks to a familiar reality.\n<\/p>\n

Too often, military service is acknowledged in May and November, then forgotten the rest of the year. Veterans at the luncheon echoed what many have been saying: they have been overlooked by the nation they served and, more importantly, by the city they call home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a failure the mayor-elect has the power to correct \u2013 if he chooses to.\n<\/p>\n

When New York City\u2019s Department of Veterans\u2019 Services (DVS)<\/a> was established as a standalone agency more than nine years ago, its mission was clear: to provide veterans and their families with the support and access to resources that had long been missing.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, for many, DVS has become a source of frustration and disappointment. With fewer than 40 full-time staff and less than 1% of the city\u2019s budget, capacity is undeniably constrained. But limited resources alone don\u2019t explain the erosion of trust between the agency and the community it\u2019s meant to serve.<\/p>\n

Veterans earned better.\u00a0Here\u2019s what many in the community see:\n<\/p>\n

Leadership.\u00a0Five years under the current agency leadership have produced inefficient programs, delayed responses and no clear strategic vision or performance metrics. Elected officials may like the commissioner, but few have clear visibility into measurable results.<\/p>\n

Failing infrastructure. Veterans have been asked for patience while the agency invested in platforms that have struggled to deliver; while initiatives are launched without adequate consultation, communication, testing or even staff training, leaving nonprofit partners to manage the consequences.
Lack of clear data. Required city reports are late, incomplete or inconsistent. Additionally, data on wait times, service outcomes and unmet needs are either missing or unreliable.<\/p>\n

Staff under strain. Agency employees are overstretched, often juggling multiple roles or being reassigned with little support. The result is low morale, high turnover and instability that directly affects veterans seeking help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City Council\u2019s April report card on DVS said it plainly: \u201cWhen Veterans, advocates, and non-profit partners were surveyed about different aspects of DVS\u2026 the overall response was negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor-elect Mamdani\u2019s visit to the Bronx mattered, but symbolism alone will not improve lives. Veterans need leadership and structural reform. To that end, the incoming administration can act immediately to:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Appoint a new commissioner. DVS needs a people- and results-driven leader who can reset expectations, rebuild internal culture, restore external credibility, and deliver measurable progress\n<\/p>\n

\u2022 Integrate veterans into the affordability agenda. Housing, transportation and food security are veteran issues too. Veterans should be prioritized for housing, and interagency coordination must improve so disabled and older veterans can access programs like SNAP and rental assistance without unnecessary barriers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Provide accurate data. A commitment to \u201cdelivering for the people\u201d requires clear information about who is being served, how long they are waiting, where bottlenecks exist, and what outcomes are being achieved.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fix systems before building new ones. Technology is not a box to check, and veterans should not be treated as beta testers. If platforms, such as VetConnect are failing, the administration must understand why, rebuild thoughtfully, pilot responsibly and scale when the systems work.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Support staff. Front-line employees understand the challenges, but they need stable roles, proper training and leadership that values and acts on their expertise. Clear communication should be standard, not optional.<\/p>\n

Every mayoral administration professes support for veterans, but too often the words rarely match reality. The absence of any veterans on the mayor-elect\u2019s social services or community organizing transition committees underscores this persistent and disappointing pattern.<\/p>\n

Real change requires leadership, accountability and the resolve to fix what\u2019s not working. Mayor-elect Mamdani has an opportunity to modernize DVS into an effective, transparent, people-centered agency.<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s veterans and their families deserve nothing less.\n<\/p>\n

Joe Bello served in the U.S. Navy\/Naval Reserve and has been a veteran\u2019s advocate and organizer in New York City for over two decades. He is the founder of NYMetroVets<\/a> and the former Citywide Veterans Director at the City Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A soldier lays a wreath at the NYC Veterans Day Parade in Midtown on Nov. 11, 2025. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[13280,41091,41092,41093,41094,41095,75,84,83,41096,9,24,8975,63,7818,41097,41098,41099,41100,41101,82],"class_list":["post-83954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-affordability-crisis","tag-bronx-veterans","tag-city-government-accountability","tag-data-transparency","tag-dvs-reform","tag-housing-for-veterans","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-municipal-reform","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-politics","tag-nyc","tag-progressive-agenda","tag-public-administration-leadership","tag-social-services-coordination","tag-staff-morale-and-turnover","tag-technology-failures","tag-veterans-services","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}