VA’s Fisher Houses ribbon-cutting
addresses patients’ housing needs
BY ALEX MITCHELL
After years of construction,
two Fisher Houses for
military families have offi -
cially opened at the James J.
Peters VA Medical Center in
Kingsbridge on Wednesday,
May 22.
The Tudor-style, 13,300
square foot two-story housing
units will provide a total
of 32 free, temporary housing
suites for family members
and caregivers of hospitalized
veterans receiving treatment
at the VA facility.
Nationwide, Fisher House
has a total of 84 housing sites;
none of which resemble these
twin, fi rst in the Bronx and
the city, sites.
“We had to change the format
from what we build in
Albuquerque, New Mexico,”
joked Ken Fisher, who’s the
chairman and CEO of the
Fisher House Foundation and
a native Bronxite who wanted
these sites to be ‘uniquely
Bronx’ in design.
The Fisher family spent
years on the Grand Concourse
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 34 AY 31-JUNE 6, 2019 BTR
prior to his family’s
move to Riverdale where
Ken “grew up, went to public
school and played stickball.”
That was before he along others
were instrumental in saving
the USS Intrepid from being
scrapped in the late 1970s
and of course creating his
foundation for veterans and
their families.
Photos of that famous aircraft
carrier now hang inside
the two new temporary
homes for veterans’ families
along with an iconic shot of
Mike’s Deli in the Arthur Avenue
Retail Market and many
other city icons.
Those houses also provide
a fully equipped kitchen, spacious
dining room, laundry
room, and luxurious common
living areas and patios for
families of loved ones receiving
treatment.
Joining Secretary of Veterans
Affairs Robert Wilkie’s at
the ribboncutting was ‘Bronx
Tales’ actor, Bronxite Chazz
Palminteri.
“Why do you think I’m
here? It’s for the veterans,
they deserve all the support
in the world,” he said men-
tioning how meaningful it is
for himself to see something
like Fisher Houses open in
his home borough.
The VA center can now,
with the hospitality aid of
Fisher Houses, specialize in
exoskeleton research while
treating paralyzed veterans.
Wilkie said confi dently
that a breakthrough in exoskeleton
research that could
even repair spinal parallelization
would likely come
from the research being done
in the Bronx.
According to Fisher
Houses, the suites can probably
serve up to 11,680 families
annually.
Chazz Palminteri (r) speaking with a Fisher House representative.
Photo by Edward Watkins
One of the two Fisher Houses on the VA’s campus. Photo by Edward Watkins