Veterans now make up 12 percent of our nations homeless population and Veterans are 50 percent more likely to become homeless compared to all other Americans. The risk of homelessness among our veterans is even greater if the veteran is under the poverty line.
A few weeks ago Congressmember Gary Ackerman wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki urging the Secretary to stop plans to redevelop the current VA Hospital in St. Albans. Ackerman suggested that instead of redeveloping the land privately, a new state of the art full service VA hospital should be built. I couldn’t agree more with the Congressmember.
As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan comes to an end our Veteran population is soaring and Queens will become home of many of these veterans. I urge all Queens residents to contact Secretary Shinseki and tell him not to leave any veteran behind.
Let’s honor our Veterans by building a new facility that will serve the Queens County Veteran population for years to come.
Matthew Silverstein
Democratic State Committeeman, 26th AD
