BUFFALO, N.Y. — On this Veterans Day, 2 On Your Side looked into the care that veterans are getting locally and what challenges are still out there.
We had the chance to visit the Veterans One-stop Center on Main Street in Buffalo.
Kenny Williams is a case manager at Veterans One-stop. He served in the Army National Guard and did one tour in Iraq.
He says there's been heightened attention in recent years in increasing the quality of care for veterans, ever since that nationwide scandal under the Obama Administration in 2014, when the Department of Veterans Affairs faced fierce criticism over the neglect of military veterans.
One thing Kenny says he would like to see is more veterans serving as VA case evaluators.
"There's a major part of those who are doing the evaluating that are not veterans. That's a challenge, and getting records for some veterans, their DD214, which is the military DNA, it tells your story," Williams said.
Williams says he would like to see more federal lawmakers take on this issue in getting more veterans as case evaluators.
Veterans One-stop says affordable housing and employment remain big issues for veterans and that some service members, who served years ago, even decades ago, are now coming around to learn about their benefits.
Kathy Zunner, the chief development officer at Veterans One-stop, says different agencies are collaborating more so because of the COVID pandemic on issues such as housing, employment and food insecurity, but she also adds that affordable housing remains a big issue.
Veterans One-stop urges those who served to contact them to learn about what benefits are available to them. Veterans One-stop can be reached at: 716-898-0110.
In the meantime, the Biden Administration says it is taking steps to try to help veterans who have been exposed to environmental hazardous while they were in the military.
Concerns about U.S. service members and their exposure to hazardous chemicals has been growing.
On Thursday, the Biden Administration released a rundown of the changes the federal government is making to try to improve the health of veterans, who have been exposed to environmental hazards.
One of those hazards were so-called -- burn pits -- which were used to destroy waste at military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Biden Administration says the federal government is now using registries to know which service members were exposed to potentially hazardous chemicals.
The VA will be allowed to create "presumptions of exposure" in cases where it may be hard to prove a veteran was exposed.
Williams says he believes he may've been exposed to a burn pit and that care for those who were exposed should be quick.
"The process should be swift, it shouldn't be a long drawn out process if a veteran was exposed to burn pits and things of that nature it's verifiable through their time in service," Williams said.
Williams says he has seen a doctor and that he is in good health.
The White House says next year the VA will launch a call center for veterans and a nationwide network of specialists for veterans with questions about environmental exposures.