Hawley: audit shows improvements needed to veterans’ housing program

Press Release, Assemblyman Steve Hawley

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C-Batavia), a veteran and one of the longest-serving members of the Assembly Veterans’ Affairs Committee, is calling for improvements to New York’s access to Home for Heroes and other veterans programs after a recent audit by Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found significant administrative delays, inadequate oversight and poor outreach that prevented funding from reaching disabled veterans.

The audit found that only 36% of the program’s $3.3 million in contract funding was spent during the audit period, while many counties with large populations of disabled veterans were either unaware of the program or did not apply for available funding. Since the program’s creation in 2015, only about 31% of the $19.6 million allocated to the program has been spent.

“Our disabled veterans answered the call to serve our country, and they deserve a government that keeps its promises to them,” said Hawley. “After serving on the Assembly Veterans’ Affairs Committee since I first took office, I know these programs can make a real difference in veterans’ lives. When funding sits unused because of poor oversight and inadequate outreach, the people who pay the price are the men and women who sacrificed for our freedom.”

The audit also found repeated failures to meet project deadlines, inadequate monitoring of local administrators and insufficient marketing efforts that left many eligible veterans unaware assistance was available.

“We owe our veterans more than our gratitude. We owe them action,” Hawley said. “The state should implement the comptroller’s recommendations, strengthen oversight and ensure these resources reach every eligible veteran who needs them. No veteran should have to fight bureaucracy to receive the support they have earned.”