Department of Veterans' Services

Housing placements more than doubled from FY22 to FY23 (52 to 123) — DVS's own reporting attributes this to the lifting of New York State's pandemic-era eviction moratorium, which drove up demand for housing help and let DVS place more Veterans with expanded VA coordination. The further climb to 153 placements in FY25 is credited to three additional housing staff the agency hired that year.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Fiscal 2023 Mayor's Management Report, DVS, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report

DVS doesn't control how many Collaborative Case Management housing vouchers it gets each year — that number is set by outside voucher allocators, mainly local VA medical facilities. The agency's own reporting attributes the jump to 114 available vouchers in FY26 (from 37 the year before) to a larger allocation from those partners, not a change in DVS operations.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Preliminary Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report

Only 4 of the 49 housing vouchers available to DVS were used in FY23 — the agency's own reporting blames unforeseen delays processing voucher applications that year. Usage recovered to 35 (of 45 available) in FY24 and stayed strong in FY25, which DVS credits to more referrals from local VA medical facilities and the restart of its Mission: VetCheck volunteer outreach program.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Fiscal 2024 Mayor's Management Report, DVS, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report

This utilization rate is a ratio of two small, volatile numbers — vouchers available and vouchers used — so it swings widely. The 100%-to-8% collapse from FY22 to FY23 reflects application-processing delays DVS reported that year, while the recent slide toward 21% in FY26 is mostly supply-side: DVS says a much larger allocation of vouchers arrived that year than the agency's caseload could immediately use.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Fiscal 2024 Mayor's Management Report, DVS, Preliminary Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report

Site visits grew nearly six-fold from FY22 to FY25 as DVS steadily expanded its marketing — adding direct mail, targeted text messaging, and paid social media and newspaper ads on top of its existing outreach — according to the agency's own year-by-year reporting.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Fiscal 2023 Mayor's Management Report, DVS, Fiscal 2024 Mayor's Management Report

Impressions surged 54% in FY24 as DVS diversified its marketing channels, then declined over the next two years — DVS attributes the FY25 dip to reaching "the upper limits of existing tools and tactics," and the further FY26 drop to a deliberate strategy shift away from paid social media promotion toward in-person outreach events instead.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, DVS, Preliminary Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report

Referrals fell sharply starting in FY24 because DVS made mental health screenings voluntary rather than automatic for clients, which meant fewer people were screened and therefore fewer were referred out — the agency says this was a deliberate choice to avoid assuming every Veteran who contacts DVS needs mental health support. The partial rebound in FY26 followed a new intake system (using a more detailed suicide-risk screening tool) that DVS adopted mid-year.

Researched July 16, 2026 — DVS, Fiscal 2024 Mayor's Management Report, DVS, Preliminary Fiscal 2026 Mayor's Management Report