On June 17, 2022, Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS) Legal Director & Senior Law Project Director, Peter Kempner, testified before an oversight hearing on “How New York City’s Veterans Access Healthcare” held by the New York City Council’s Committee on Veterans. The hearing was scheduled in response to the United States Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) announcement that both the Manhattan and Brooklyn VA Hospitals may be closed. Mr. Kempner’s testimony highlighted the important role that the social work staff at the VA Hospital play in addressing the needs of veterans and their role in connecting veterans with critical legal services like those provided by the VOLS Veterans Initiative. The VA Hospitals are a critical community partner of the VOLS Veterans Initiative, and we stand with the New York City Council and the Adams administration in their unanimous calls to halt the closure of these facilities.
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Read the full text below:
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON VETERANS
Friday June 17, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
SUBJECT: Oversight – “How New York City’s Veterans Access Healthcare.”
Good morning. My name is Peter Kempner. I am the Legal Director at Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS). VOLS was established in 1984 and our purpose is to leverage private attorneys to provide free legal services to low-income New Yorkers to help fill the justice gap.
In addition to my duties as Legal Director of VOLS, I founded and supervised the VOLS Veterans Initiative. I also created and teach the Veterans Justice Clinic at New York Law School; I sit on the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs; I am a member of the New York State Bar Association Veterans Committee; I co-chair the New York Legal Services Veterans Working Group; and I have held many past positions focused on the civil legal needs of low-income veterans. The core work that the VOLS Veterans Initiative does for veterans is the drafting and execution of life planning documents which include Last Wills and Testaments, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies, Living Wills and other advance directives.
By engaging in effective life planning, elderly and disabled veterans are more likely to stay in their homes, age in place in the community and live with dignity. A veteran who has executed a power of attorney empowers their agent to seek government benefits to pay for housing costs, to sign leases, apply for and recertify housing subsidies, and deal with any issue that may arise with their landlord or housing provider. The agent can also seek SNAP, Medicaid, and other critical benefits.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the VOLS Veterans Initiative conducted free weekly legal clinics at the Manhattan Campus of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ NY Harbor Health Care System where we provided free civil legal services to low-income veterans aged 60 and over. After the crisis shut the VA Hospital to outside visitors, we moved our services online and launched a legal hotline for low-income aging veterans. Despite the move away from in-person clinics at the VA Hospital, we maintained close ties to the social workers and other staff at the VA. They are a critical connection between the VA’s patients and providers who serve the veteran community.
VOLS is not the only legal services provider that maintains close ties to the Brooklyn and Manhattan VA Medical Centers. Many of our fellow providers also recognize the importance of these facilities as touch points for veterans facing legal challenges in addition to their medical needs. The social workers at the VA hospitals embody the holistic view that the best way to help veterans includes physical, psychosocial, and economic determinants. As a legal services provider we often rely on referrals from and the assistance of the staff at the VA Hospitals to provide services.
Recently we were contacted by a veteran’s daughter who received our information from VA social work staff. He is a 97- year-old World War II veteran who had been hospitalized at the Manhattan VA and was about to be transferred to a rehabilitation facility. He needed Medicaid to help cover the cost of home care, but he was unable to complete the forms himself and his daughter’s hands were tied without a power of attorney.
His daughter lived in Las Vegas and had been desperately calling service providers, but none were able to make the hospital visit to meet with him. We informed her that we could come to the VA hospital in two days. If he were able to get us the information we needed by then, we would come to his bedside with a prepared power of attorney to execute.
When we arrived at the hospital, our partners on the VA’s social work staff informed us that he was about to be transferred to a rehab facility. We rushed down to his hospital room with two VA social workers in tow to act as witnesses and arrived at the same time as the ambulance crew. We convinced them to wait for him to sign his documents before they took him in the ambulance to the rehab facility. We left the original documents with his belongings and sent a copy to his daughter.
When she received the document, she sent us the following note: “Thank you. What you do is amazing and so helpful. He is going to rehab for the 20 days we can get, and this buys me some time to try to organize getting him some in home care. You took one thing off our plate to organize by doing this. I feel so lost and helpless right now and you helped by doing this one little thing. I am truly grateful.”
The reality was that we would not have been able to serve this veteran without the referral from the VA Hospital and without the help of the social work staff. The VA Hospitals are unique places where veteran-centric care is primary, and it is a model which I have not seen replicated elsewhere. While the VA is not always perfect, I have no doubt that the over 200,000 veterans who call New York City home will lose a significant service if the Manhattan and Brooklyn VA Hospitals were to close.
Thank you to the sponsors of Res. No 130 and we support your calls to halt the proposed closures of the Manhattan and Brooklyn VA Medical Centers. Thank you for allowing us to submit this testimony and for supporting the New York City veteran community.
Peter Kempner, Esq.
Legal Director