New York's senior senator is speaking out against a policy that treats veterans and current service members on Staten Island differently than those in the rest of the city.

Senator Charles Schumer said active duty service members and veterans attending college receive thousands less for housing than those who live in the other four boroughs.

He said Staten Island was mistakenly put in a separate funding category from the rest of the city, and he is calling on the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to provide equal housing allowances.

"Staten Island has faced some of the highest costs in the nation and veteran and active servicemen who go to school here shouldn't be punished because of some arbitrary regulation that was a figment of some bureaucrat's imagination. They said, ‘well, Staten Island is less expensive.’ It's not," said Schumer.

"It's very disheartening to find out that all the other boroughs make well over $700 more than us, and the cost of living on Staten Island is a lot. It is the same as the Bronx and Brooklyn, and it hurts that we get treated less," said Christopher Longo of the College of Staten Island Vets Transitional Center.

NY1 has reached out to the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs for comment.