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VIETNAM VET USES GRANT TO SET UP VETERANS'
RESOURCE CENTERS IN NEW YORK CITY -- "There's
too much red tape at the VA. The job of the
veterans
resource center is to cut through the red
tape."
Thomas Mullifield (left), who will
start a veteran resource center in each borough, joins (from left)
Andre Hubert, Ken Wales and Victor Padilla. (photo: Alvarez for
News) |
Story here...
http://www.nydailynews.
com/boroughs/bronx/2007/10/02/20
07-10-02_veteran_to_use_grant_t
o_set_up_resource_.html
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Veteran to use grant to set up resource center
in each boro
BY DAN GESSLEIN
Thomas Mullifield (left), who will start a veteran resource center in
each borough, joins (from left) Andre Hubert, Ken Wales and Victor
Padilla.
Thomas Mullifield (left), who will start a veteran resource center in
each borough, joins (from left) Andre Hubert, Ken Wales and Victor
Padilla.
Thirty-three years after being plucked from the jungles of Vietnam and
returned to New York, Thomas Mullifield finally learned about what
veteran services he was entitled to.
But it wasn't his superior officer, or a Veterans Administration social
worker who told him.
It was his fellow streetcorner vets.
Now armed with a City Council grant to create a one-stop shopping center
for vet services, Mullifield is working to make sure those returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan do not have to wait decades for help.
As part of a $1 million City Council grant to create a Veteran Resource
Center in each borough, New Era Veterans, Inc. will receive $185,000 to
build a Bronx site.
It is unclear at this time if the center will be housed in the agency's
Commonwealth Ave. building in Soundview or at the Bronx borough
president's office.
What is clear is that the center will allow vets to walk in and get help
with housing, employment and educational benefits, physical and
psychiatric services.
"There's too much red tape at the VA. The job of the veterans resource
center is to cut through the red tape," said Mullifield, who is
spearheading the move to get the resource program off the ground here.
"Are they prepared for a new generation coming home from Iraq?" he
asked. "I don't think so."
Troops returning from service in the Middle East are expected to not
only be ignorant about their benefits but will be forced to seek help at
the VA, which has a reported backlog of 400,000 cases.
"I really didn't know much about my benefits. I just got through the
best I could," said Andre Hubert, who served as a signalman on the
missile cruiser Long Beach from 1975 to 1977.
He became homeless last year after losing his job. It was not until he
transferred out of a city shelter last month into New Era's SRO that he
found out about all the benefits he was entitled to.
It is because of this lack of outreach that Mullifield plans to take his
fight to the streets.
"Betsy," the agency's mobile medical center, has been repaired and, with
corporate help, will roam the streets of the Bronx, looking for homeless
vets who will get checkups and benefit information.
"This is going to be a hard-nosed referral, where we can make all these
inroads beforehand," said Mullifield. "Guys are getting the runaround -
and that's got to stop."
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Larry Scott --
