A federal aid program aimed at getting homeless veterans off the streets provided shelter for about 10 percent of the ex-soldiers, sailors, air crew, and RCMP in need over a four-year period, recently released government records show.
Since Nov. 1, 2019, only 277 homeless veterans were provided with shelter under the program, records in an Inquiry of Ministry first reported on by Blacklock’s Reporter show. The highest number of homes were built in 2022, with 137 units built in Ontario. That number was as low as six or seven in previous years.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, in the Inquiry tabled in the Commons last week, said Canada’s National Housing Strategy puts the needs of ex-soldiers, sailors and air crew first. The program “prioritizes the housing needs of the most vulnerable populations in Canada, including veterans, by building new affordable housing,” Veterans Affairs said.
“According to the most recent estimate, there are more than 2,600 veterans who experience homelessness annually,” said the Inquiry. “This estimate is derived from a combination of shelter data and point in time surveys of people experiencing homelessness.”
The Inquiry also said that the program operated in only three provinces: Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario.
Veteran Affairs last May estimated few of Canada’s 461,235 veterans were homeless. The ministry said between 1,905 and 2,400 veterans were annual shelter users, adding that not all who experience homelessness will access a shelter.
Veterans Affairs also operates an emergency fund that hands out grants of $2,500 to homeless ex-military.
The program, which is intended as emergency aid for veterans, is to help recipients deal with “an emergency that threatens their health and well-being” such as lack of food or shelter. Demand for the program, which started in 2018, consistently exceeds the $1 million in annual funding it receives, according to a department briefing note. Costs last year came in at $1,060,000.
A 2021 audit of the program found that 1,902 of the 2,576 funding applications were approved over two years. The majority of the funds were issued within two days “for necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care or expenses not otherwise covered,” the auditors wrote.
Most veterans who applied for the funding were unmarried men under the age of 50. Fifty-nine percent of applicants were either homeless or had “underlying addiction or mental health issues,” a review of case files found.
“There’s this notion that we’re going to get everybody off the street,” retired Gen. Walter Natynczyk, then-deputy minister, said in 2020 testimony at the Commons veterans affairs committee. “Some veterans aren’t ready. Some veterans don’t want to be connected to their families yet.”
