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♪♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Joanna Gagas.

In this edition of "NJ Spotlight News," we take a look at a range of issues that are impacting residents in our state and nation.

Take a look.

Governor Sheryl delivered her budget address outlining her fiscal priorities for the upcoming year.

It's a speech that often highlights the divide between the political parties in the state.

But one area of focus that received bipartisan applause.

homelessness for veterans living in New Jersey.

It's through a program called Bringing Veterans Home, an effort that would be bolstered by an $11 million allocation.

Our next guest is entrenched in that work every day.

He's Richard Uniac, president of Richard, great to have you on the show.

Your organization is the service provider of bringing veterans home in Essex and Union County.

Can you just first describe what that initiative is.

Sure.

Sure.

So importantly this breaks the state into bringing veterans home breaks the state into six regions.

So it's it's not tackling homelessness along the C.O.C.

kind of counting lines that it's usually dealt with.

And in each region there is a 10 person dedicated team street outreach case management housing navigation and leadership that collaborates with all providers who are serving veterans within that region and throughout the state.

They leverage data.

They develop a by name list.

They engage in case collaboration and they've made it very very easy for veterans to get referred to these BVH programs and then they just keep going down the list, right, working on how do we resolve this situation, that situation, and it really drives accountability and it drives speed with engaging with a veteran, making sure that you know the way we kind of represent it is if a veteran is at a VFW maybe having a drink at the bar and asks is it okay if I sleep in my car when this place closes up because I've got no place to go that that bartender knows who to call and we can get you at least into a hotel tonight.

So let's break down a couple things first you said BVH bringing veterans on.

There is clearly an epidemic of homelessness in New Jersey when you're not even looking at the veteran population.

Can you just break down I know we do the point in time count every year just to try to get a handle on it.

Big picture homelessness.

And then do we understand how many are veterans here in New Jersey.

Give us those numbers.

We do.

And I'm so glad you brought up the point in time count because that is a snapshot.

The point in time count in 2025 yielded just over 13000 people experiencing homelessness in New Jersey.

The all in data that we have in the state's HMIS system yielded more than 45000 people in New Jersey who experienced homelessness in 2025.

Veterans represent almost one in 10.

So we are definitely seeing an increase in homelessness and we're seeing far more than what the point in time count is ever going to be able to capture during a week in the coldest part of the year in late January.

Right.

And just so far since January 1st we've had five hundred and five veterans get newly referred to the bringing veterans home program.

Right.

So this is continuing with the inflow.

We continue to see eviction for veterans especially veterans.

of homelessness in New Jersey is eviction.

Why?

What are the driving factors behind that eviction?

It's largely the rising cost of everything else.

And it's also the number three cause which is loss of job or reduction in income that leads to eviction.

It all ends up going together.

Right.

As we're all paying more at the pump.

As we see job loss throughout the country.

As we see increased prices in everything.

Right.

We were just talking before we got started about how expensive it is to live in New Jersey.

That makes it so far out of reach for a lot of people.

One in 10 of whom are veterans.

So how do you tailor a program specifically to veterans.

You talked about you know connecting with the bartender so that they can refer for services.

I mean that level and degree of outreach feels intangible in some respects.

How do you how do you get your team of 10 out there in that region to make sure that you're you're meeting the needs of the people who have the need.

Yeah.

And the most important thing is making sure that there is no wrong door that we have a pathway to being referred into this program whatever region you're going to be served by absolutely everywhere right from libraries to hospitals to VFWs and American Legions it has to be very very very easy and then in each region we've got a dedicated street outreach team as well as a dedicated case management team so those street outreach teams which by the way they collaborate with with every other veteran service provider in the state right they have to respond within 24 hours to engage with this veteran to get them a safe place to stay tonight even if that's going to be a hotel room something that is very very temporary and then into permanent housing as fast as possible.

You're talking about cost money.

Talk about the allocation that the governor has said she wants to put behind this initiative eleven million dollars just for this program.

But what are the numbers that she's proposed.

Let's start there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we're very grateful that this is a policy priority and a budget priority for the governor.

The reality unfortunately is that eleven million dollars is is not a sustainable number for this program.

What does it need to be.

I mean last year was twenty six million plus another 14 million for vouchers.

Right.

And that's where I think we're still looking for a little bit of clarity in terms of what the 11 million represents.

Is it 11 instead of 40 or is there additional voucher support coming from somewhere.

So it's 11 million instead of 26.

That's still only 42 percent.

Right.

It's less than half as a provider that's not an SSVF provider.

We have to stand up a dedicated team that is not already in the field to do this.

And it really kind of makes it unsustainable for providers like us.

And it makes us really think long and hard about what resources are available and how we approach this.

When you talk about vouchers what do you mean there.

I mean really housing vouchers.

All right.

So we need folks to be self-sustaining at a certain point.

We do get a fair number of veterans who have a disabling condition and may not be able to work.

And they're going to need a housing voucher to make sure that they're not paying more than 30 percent of their income which may be limited to Social Security disability or other benefits.

I know you work in the housing space but very often you encounter folks who have a need that runs the gamut.

Right.

How do you work to get them connected to services that could include food support maybe transportation maybe job support.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's all of it.

I mean we leverage a housing stabilization matrix that looks at all the key functional areas.

We want to make sure that their household finances are straight whatever their source of income.

However that goes we look at their food insecurity.

You know we'll we'll do everything from call ubers to rely on other systems to make sure that they get transportation to wherever they need to go or take them ourselves.

But but we absolutely have a wide range of partners in order to aim for reduced friction in those connections.

Those those really important connections.

If somebody needs health care whether they're getting it from the V.A.

or they're not.

If somebody needs behavioral health care or substance use treatment which sometimes occurs right.

These are not primary drivers into homelessness.

Even for folks who are not veterans.

These are not causal for homelessness in New Jersey even when they are present and even prevalent in some populations.

So what we have to do is just is really make sure that there's a very tight connection for anything that they need.

And of course just quickly this requires some coordination between departments within the governor's office.

Right.

We've got the Department of Community Affairs and Veterans Affairs.

How do you.

Just a few seconds.

But how do you see those departments working together.

Where could they improve.

I think they're doing a great job.

And I know Commissioner Salamino is doing a great job and really hitting that hitting the whole state making sure that everybody is is really tightly connected.

That seems to be working really really well.

I think what they need is more financial support.

All right.

That's what everyone's asking for.

Not everyone is going to get it in this tight budget season.

But Rich Uniack thank you so much for your time.

Thank you John.

More than 11000 wheelchairs or scooters get damaged delayed or lost each year during air travel.

That's according to the U.S.

Department of Transportation.

Well behind that statistic are the real life impacts on the people who depend on them.

People like Emily Ledao who experienced her wheelchair getting damaged on multiple occasions including earlier this month.

Emily is the author of the book Demystifying Disability What to Know What to Say and How to be an Ally.

She joins us now to share her story.

Emily thanks so much for coming on the show.

Just earlier this month you experienced this.

Unfortunately not for the first time.

What happened to your wheelchair.

Thank you for having me.

First of all I wish it was under better circumstances but I am really glad to be raising awareness about this issue.

So I flew from LaGuardia Airport to Minneapolis-St.

Paul Airport and it was on Delta Airlines and when I arrived I was informed that my wheelchair had taken a fall while they were removing it from the airplane and it is a 450 pound device.

So a fall is quite dangerous for something that heavy.

And it turned out that the wheelchair was totaled.

It was completely destroyed.

Just OK.

So I'll have a lot of questions quickly.

The cost of that wheelchair.

What is it.

So it is a little over seventy five thousand dollars because it is a custom wheelchair.

So it's not just a standard issue.

There are multiple features that it has including elevation because it helps me reach things.

It has a tilt and recline function which is for my safety so that I can relieve pressure and avoid pressure sore.

It's also custom measured to my specifications.

So it really is a very expensive durable medical equipment.

So in this case here you are landing in Minneapolis about to go do a speech where you you are a disability rights advocate.

What happens next.

How do you then get around.

What is your mobility at that point.

Well I was at first in quite a panic because without my wheelchair I have no way of getting around.

I am unable to walk.

So my wheelchair is essentially akin to legs for me.

It is my freedom of So what happened is that the complete resolution team at the Minneapolis-St.

Paul airport immediately got in touch with the company that they contract with called Scootaround, and it is Scootaround's job to help source a loner wheelchair.

And this was particularly a challenge because as I was just mentioning, my wheelchair is custom.

So it's not as though you can just pull one off the shelf and give it to me.

And it's not as though they're always in immediate supply.

But miraculously, within about four and a half hours, they were able to source a wheelchair for me.

It was not at all the right dimensions.

It was much too large for me.

And it was hard for me to sit in.

But it did have an elevation feature which was essential for me to be able to transfer in and out of it.

So at the end of the day I actually consider myself quite lucky that they were able to find a functional solution for me to get out of the airport.

Sadly like I said this is not the first time that this has happened to you.

In fact you had posted on social media just before this trip because you shared concerns about this.

What is the impact on you and so many thousands of others who depend on their wheelchairs or scooters for mobility when it comes to deciding whether or not you can travel whether or not you can go on a honeymoon in your example.

Well I'm really glad that you mentioned it's not just me.

The implications are incredibly far reaching and I'm so appreciative that I have the opportunity to talk about this issue.

But there are so many times when stories like this go completely under the radar.

And the implications as you said are very far reaching.

For me I was traveling because it was a business trip.

I was going to the University of Wisconsin La Crosse for a speaking engagement.

And so not being able to travel puts my livelihood at risk.

But my husband and I were also supposed to go on our honeymoon to London next month.

And after the, quite frankly, trauma of having my wheelchair broken, we just could not fathom getting back on an airplane.

Not to mention, we didn't know if I would yet have a replacement workable wheelchair.

So this is a matter of impacting livelihood.

It's a matter of impacting leisure.

And beyond that it's just a matter of impacting people's freedom of choice to go where they want to go when they want to go there.

You are calling on the FAA to make a change that allows folks who depend on a wheelchair to stay in that wheelchair on their flights.

Where is the FAA as far as you understand in terms of considering that rule.

So under the previous administration there was a lot of work being done to hold airlines accountable and hopefully either prevent damage to wheelchairs or at least eliminate the hoops that people have to jump through if their wheelchairs or mobility equipment are damaged in flight.

So I am at the very least calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to not roll back the work that was done on implementing those heavier protections for the disability community in the hopes that they really will hold the feet of the airlines to the fire.

But beyond that, there's an organization called All Wheels Up that's been working with the FAA to crash test the technology needed to allow wheelchair users to roll their mobility equipment right onto the airplane and stay in their mobility equipment and just have it tied down and secured in the same way that you might if you were rolling onto a public bus, for example.

Would that, Emily, I'm sorry, would that then require more open rows on airplanes to accommodate folks who need wheelchairs?

It's a great question and I know that there's a financial concern about it, but the technology that's being developed is such that the airline wouldn't have to lose money because the seats would be replaceable if they weren't filled by a wheelchair user, so it's not as though the seats would go empty.

So right now we have the testing, we have the technology, what we need is the airline industry and the FAA to work together to implement it.

And it will be time and effort, but it will not be at a significant loss because it will open up more travel opportunities for people with disabilities and people who use mobility devices.

And they won't have to pay for the damaged equipment.

And beyond that, they're not going to lose the seats on the airplanes.

So it's really a win win for everybody.

All right.

Emily Liddell author and disability rights advocate.

I want to thank you so much for coming on and sharing your perspective and advocating for those who don't have a voice like you do.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

A landmark verdict was reached last week that found Meta and YouTube are liable for harming kids with their social media platforms.

Meta is the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

The case was first brought by a young woman named Kaylee, who accused the companies of intentionally addicting young people with their algorithms.

A jury agreed and awarded Kaylee a total of $6 million in damages for the mental health harms she suffered as a result.

And a separate case in New Mexico found MEDA liable for harming kids' mental health and safety.

These decisions are likely to have massive impact on future cases brought against the companies.

I'm joined by a podcaster who's been covering it all and highlighting the risks these sites pose to children.

Her name is Nikki Petrosi and she's the founder of Scrolling to Death.

Nikki thanks so much for joining us.

Great to have you on the show.

Thank you for having me.

There's a lot of emotion tied to this verdict that came in.

What were you feeling as you watched it come down.

I was in the courtroom as they went through all of those yeses and we definitely didn't expect to win on every count.

This was a test case.

This was the first case to be tried of thousands.

And usually we don't win.

The plaintiff doesn't win these test cases in the bellwether consolidated format.

And so we weren't expecting it.

There was a lot of emotion.

Many different parents were in that courtroom who have lost children to social media harms and just the physicality of receiving that news the jolting of the news in the emotion behind that it was it was a lot to process I feel like it's still settling in today can you go through some of the counts that came in as guilty absolutely and so meta and YouTube were both negligent in the designer operation of their platforms this negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff Kaylee meta and YouTube both were found to have reasonably known that the design of their operation was dangerous when used by a minor and that they did not warn users there was a fail to adequately warn of the danger again this failure to warn was a substantial factor in causing harm to to Kayleigh and even further there was punitive damages decided on.

And so what was found was that YouTube and Metta were were negligent in the design of their platform.

These companies were shown through clear and convincing evidence to be acting with malice oppression or fraud in the conduct of their business practice.

And so there were found to be a danger to society and were punished through additional damages.

Nikki through your podcast and just through your coverage on social media you interact with countless parents.

You talked about those who are in the courtroom.

Can you just bring to life a couple examples of how young people have been harmed by these by these algorithms by by these policies.

There are so many different ways.

I think most importantly the addiction to the platform.

So these companies internal documents showed that they were developing different functionality to addict young people.

They were actually studying the young teenage brain pointing to areas of the brain within the slides and labeling them as opportunities in order to addict young people.

And so that has been shocking to see the internal documents.

But then we have actual families in that courtroom whose children were so damaged by these platforms and so addicted to them.

In addition to being served content that glorified suicide that glorified eating disorders that connected them with predators connected them with drug dealers who sold them a pill made with fentanyl.

And so there are so many ways that these platforms are harming children and parents who've lost those children are rising up everywhere and celebrating this verdict but also hoping for more change.

That's my next question because while we have this verdict and in one case there were damages that were provided.

Does this get to the heart or to the root of changing these companies practices moving forward.

So unfortunately when one family brings a case against companies like this there is an award.

There's there's damages awarded.

But what we want is is these companies to change their harmful platforms.

Right.

And that's not something that a one single family can enforce.

And so what we're going to see with the larger lawsuits coming from state attorneys generals and also from school districts thousands of school districts have also sued these same companies.

We're going to see injunctive relief awarded.

And that means that these companies will be forced to make their platforms safer remove the addictive functionality.

And so we will see we will see changes on that level in addition to lawmakers all over the country are drafting bills to try to get those passed to force the companies to make these changes.

And then just looking at legal precedent there are as you're talking about cases that have been filed.

We know there are thousands of cases out there right now.

Does this legal precedent then set up a greater potential for win in those cases as well.

Each individual case has to be tried individually with it with a jury based on the evidence in that case.

But that's not to say that societally knowledge about these harms and what we're seeing in those internal documents isn't reaching the feeds of everyday people and they will take that information with them as they as they look at these cases.

And so we do think that this will be a snowball effect of of wins.

And we are so excited about that because what we all want are the companies to to be protecting children instead of exposing them to harm.

We're talking right now about MEDA and YouTube.

Those are the two that were that the case found guilty but also snap and tick tock settled with the plaintiff prior to this going to trial.

Are they now let me ask it this way are they exempt now from any liability.

That is a great question and thank you for asking because no they are still defendants on the thousands of other cases.

They just settled this one case.

And in actually what I heard from the plaintiff attorney Mark Lanier is that in this case with KGM, with Kaylee, TikTok and Snapchat were amplification defendants, meaning that she started using those platforms much later and a lot of the harm occurred once she started using YouTube and Meta's platforms.

And so in this case it was more direct to focus on the platforms that harmed her more.

But Snapchat and Tick Tock are very much still defendants that will be looked into on the next case in the thousands following.

I have to ask so much of your coverage is focused on what's happening in these legal cases.

But is there any signal that there could be congressional oversight here.

Any legislative response to what these companies have now been proven to be doing.

Absolutely.

And advocacy groups all over the country have been sending these internal documents directly to lawmakers.

I know we've been in contact with many who are drafting bills right now.

But there's also a lot of pressure from the big tech companies.

They're spending over 50 million dollars a year lobbying against online safety bills that would protect children.

And so we're fighting a big fight there.

And I really am hopeful that lawmakers will step up and do the right thing.

I just want to talk to you quickly about your podcast Scrolling to Death.

How did this start.

How did you get involved in this work.

Thank you.

So I used to have my own social media management company.

So I was on the other side of this managing social media and you know flip the script back in 2023.

There was a surgeon general's warning stating that when kids are young people spend more than three hours on social media it doubles their risk of anxiety and depression.

And I thought that was a really important thing for us to know.

And I also started learning about parents who were alleging that their children died because of something that happened on social media.

And I thought this was so important given that kids are asking for access younger and younger that we need to have all the information at hand as parents before we make those choices so that we can protect them.

And so that was my my goal was to create a safe space to share information in a productive way just to educate parents.

You talk about kids who are dying.

And I know you just posted recently about the blackout challenge that's been around for years.

It's not even new.

What were you highlighting there in terms of these types of videos.

Right.

So another child had passed away from the blackout challenge or the choking challenge.

And this was a 9 year old who saw it on social media.

And the thing is that kids are going to post things.

People are going to post things.

And these companies due to a 30 year old law can't be held liable for what gets posted on the platforms.

But unfortunately these companies are pushing harmful content to young children.

And so this young 9 year old girl named Jacqueline I believe in Texas was pushed through the algorithm a choking challenge video which then led her to try it.

And and she unfortunately passed away.

And I've been interviewing parents parents survivors of choking challenge victims for many years.

And so the companies are aware that this type of dangerous deadly challenge is is so prevalent on their platforms and they have the technological ability to remove it.

And they obviously are not given that we are still losing children to this devastating challenge.

Yeah something you continue to highlight.

Thank you so much for all of this insight.

Really appreciate you coming on to talk about it.

Thank you so much.

That's going to do it for us.

I'm Joanna Gagas for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you next.

And J.M.

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