We're still at the point where we have so many veterans who just can't afford housing. We're working with the federal government right now with the veteran homelessness program, where they're funding us so that we can situate veterans from homelessness into housing. They have given us $1.4 million a year, but that's to support four provinces, which isn't really.... It works, but it's not addressing all of the veterans' needs.
With our programs through the VHP—and prior to that when we had our own without any federal money—we always provide food services and getting veterans from homelessness into homes, but the biggest thing is preventing homelessness. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on rent, on wraparound services such as utilities and on whatever kinds of bills are going to stop them from being in a situation where they'll be struggling. We've worked on this for eight years now, and we're seeing a lot of headway, but at the end of the day, we are spending so much money with the increased amounts in the rents for our rental properties, rents for veterans, utility bills, food costs—everything.
Then, on this idea that Alana and I talked about at one time, if we had federal government buildings that could be donated, wouldn't that be nice? We could utilize those for, as Mr. McKay said, the full wraparound of services. In our organization right now, we have pretty much everything. We have the food services and all the emergency funding services. We have the pet promise program. We have a thrift store where we can put veterans back to work, and anything veterans need in the way of clothing or housing items they can get from there. We have an in-house acupuncturist, an in-house therapist, an in-house dentist, a hairdresser and a massage therapist, who all share an office.
There are just so many resources, and the gentleman up there who was speaking says that in the smaller regions they don't have that kind of access. If they could have a building donated by the federal government that they could utilize to make sure veterans are getting the services they require, that would be an absolutely amazing gesture.