Mr. Chair, I'll walk through the couple of situations where I've met up with them. Personally, this is my approach. I would not qualify myself as an expert on homelessness in any respect, but we're certainly proactive in trying to meet these people.
As soon as I've heard of a case--and we are only now building the capacity to actually have investigators--I've taken it upon myself to meet with these individuals. The first thing I do is talk to them. I mentioned the one story of the World War II veteran. Another World War II veteran I met was actually hostile towards me. Unlike the first person, who was worried that he would lose whatever Veterans Affairs was giving to him and wanted to remain private, this person was quite angry about Veterans Affairs and whatever transpired throughout his lifetime. I had to talk to him. It actually took about an hour in both cases, these individuals whom we met with. It takes about an hour to break down their paradigm and their defences regarding whom they are talking to. Perhaps I was in a better position than most because I had the military background and I could relate to them. But it takes time to speak their language and to meet with them.
My team and I are sensitive to the plight of our veterans, to a fault. We ask them if there's anything we can do. I seldom travel anywhere without somebody from my team who's an expert in all things Veterans Affairs so that this person can advise me if there's anything we can do for the individual. In the cases where somebody asks us for help, we are only too willing to oblige. We have done so on two occasions.
Recognize that this is an economy-of-effort initiative that I've been doing in my spare time. I don't have the resources to blanket the entire country to meet with these organizations, but I do.... Alleviating hardship is our first priority when somebody comes to us.