Local Organizations

Western New York Heroes (WNYHeroes.org) strives to find the best services available in the western New York region for veterans and servicemembers. These services include financial assistance, special events, and general assistance with problems arising from re-transitioning into society after combat.

Albany Housing Coalition deals broadly with the housing needs of homeless and low-income veterans in the Albany area. It provides transitional and permanent residential units for homeless veterans, and affordable rentals for low-income veterans and their families. Albany Housing Coalition also provides counseling, job training, and housing advocacy. Its website includes a comprehensive list of its services, as well as current events and opportunities for veterans.

The Western New York Veterans Housing Coalition (WNYVHC) primarily seeks to provide residential housing to low-income and homeless veterans in Western New York. The organization has converted several buildings into affordable residential housing in Buffalo. In addition to residential services, the organization also provides job-development services and other assistance to transitioning veterans in the area.

The Veterans Coalition of Orange County seeks to unite veterans organizations throughout Orange County to work as a coalition for the advancement of veteran causes and to improve the daily life of those who have returned home. The Web site has a set of links to other veterans organizations and contacts—both Federal and local—and provides a list of resources for issues concerning veterans.

The City University of New York (CUNY) Office of Veterans Affairs is dedicated to fostering a sense of community and to developing a channel of communication among veteran and reservist students, and with faculty, staff, and administration. This Web site is a virtual one-stop source of information regarding services for veterans, reservists, and their dependents.

Through this program, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Services (LIJ) psychiatrists and other physicians, psychologists, and social workers provide behavioral health treatment at no cost to local, State and Federal law enforcement officers and their families; veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other veteran military personnel and their families; and members of the Reserves, Naval Militia, National Guard, Service Academies, and their families.

The Veterans Outreach Center (VOC) is the oldest community-based veteran outreach effort in the nation. Opened in 1973 to support Vietnam veterans coping with their wartime experiences and to facilitate government benefits claims, VOC has evolved to meet the contemporary and ever-changing needs of veterans of all eras and National Guard and Reserve military personnel.