Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 27th, 2018

[Angus Stanfield]

Yes. Usually it isn't a bus pass, because they're back on their feet. Quite often it becomes a case that it's the end of the month and their grocery money hasn't quite gone far enough.

One of the big motivators for the people who are successful is the previous family ties that, through the course of whatever has happened to them and their homelessness, have been broken. You get a veteran who has a couple of kids or something. The idea that if they can get everything together and get themselves back on track, they can hook back up with their family is the strongest motivation there is.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you.

You mentioned substance abuse. That's something I found in my previous life as well. Very often, people with substance issues were in fact attempting to self-medicate for underlying illness.

Are you able to connect the people who have these issues with the kind of rehabilitation they need, whether it's for alcohol or drugs? Is there a conduit whereby you can get these people into treatment and rehab programs for substance use?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

We're running out of time, so just make your answer short, please.

[Angus Stanfield]

The short answer is yes, there are professional people we can hook them up with. When we started, we were going to make the place a dry house—no drinking. We found that this wasn't the way to go, because we didn't know how far along each person was in their journey. With no parties and this, that and the other thing, and with a resident manager, it just hasn't been an issue.

We haven't had a lot of problems with drugs, but when we have, we immediately get professionals in to help them, because we can't have the thing go sideways.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Mr. Johns, you have five minutes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Segaert.

Thank you, Mr. Stanfield, especially for your selfless service. It's greatly appreciated.

You talked about your facility being full. Would you say it's 100% full most of the time?

[Angus Stanfield]

Yes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Is the pressure getting worse? I'm from Vancouver Island. We've seen real estate go up 50% in the last three years. Are you seeing numbers that you've never seen before, in the last three years?

[Angus Stanfield]

I know that is definitely a factor. Housing is an issue. I think, though, it's an issue everywhere. I don't think it's just in the cities. Housing in Canada is a pretty tough issue right now. I know Victoria is an extremely expensive place to live.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

We know what we heard today, that 3,000 veterans have waited over a year for their disability claims to be opened. Are you finding veterans showing up who are waiting because of the backlog, getting frustrated, falling through the cracks and ending up on the street? Are you seeing veterans who aren't getting the services they need and then ending up there?

[Angus Stanfield]

I don't know that I can say we've had any who have ended up on the street because of that. Typically, most of them haven't approached Veterans Affairs yet, and probably would not on their own.

When the person is homeless—this is something we've learned too—somebody will phone me up and say, “I have a buddy who really needs your service. We heard what you do. I'll get him to come in tomorrow.” The first thing I'll say is, “Don't get him to come in tomorrow, because he won't. You bring him in tomorrow.” It just works that way. It just does.

It's the same with taking that first step to hook up with Veterans Affairs with a caseworker. I don't mean this in a bad way, but if you can take them by the hand, help them with their initial paperwork, and then once they get started and can see some light.... Many of them have no idea that there are benefits that they're entitled to that they never bothered to ask for.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Veterans Emergency Transition Services Canada—VETS Canada—and the Royal Canadian Legion reported an increase in the number of cases, according to a story on CBC, in which VAC has referred people to organizations. Has this happened in your facility? Have you had referrals made by VAC?

[Angus Stanfield]

Absolutely.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Is that with no funding from VAC, nothing that way?

[Angus Stanfield]

No. There's a lot of help, but no funding. More than ever now, our referrals are coming through VAC—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

From VAC, with no funding...?

[Angus Stanfield]

—just because we have two people who look after our people. The one fellow will phone at least twice a week and ask, “Can you see any room coming up? I have a guy who really needs you.”

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You said earlier that you don't think you tried hard enough, working with the government, to get funding. I would say the opposite. I would say that the government hasn't tried hard enough to support you.

[Angus Stanfield]

Thank you.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

That would be my comment.

You heard about the lapsed spending. We passed a motion unanimously in the House of Commons just over two weeks ago whereby we're committed to moving all lapsed spending from the previous year that isn't spent by Veterans Affairs. It would have been $148 million last year.

How do you think this money could make an impact, if it were rolled out to help support dealing with veterans' homelessness and support facilities such as yours?

[Angus Stanfield]

It would absolutely help. It would be a big help.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Right.

Dr. Segaert, you talked about the number of veterans you're finding through shelters and many who can't be identified. I think Mr. Stanfield articulated that as well. Many veterans have skills to live outside. We see this on Vancouver Island. You know, Mr. Stanfield, that many veterans can live in the bush and survive for a long period of time.

Do you have any ideas or thoughts on how we can track those veterans or get numbers? Clearly, you're only getting the numbers from the shelters, but many veterans are living in remote areas, and for other reasons too.

[Aaron Segaert]

That is a really tough problem. Counting homeless people of any type is very difficult. The point-in-time counts take place in cities. That's one way to get people who are on the streets or in various abandoned buildings or other locations, or living in cars, but it's probably impossible for us to count people living in the bush, camping somewhere, that kind of thing—or people who don't really want to be found. It's going to be hard to count them. I wish I knew how to include those people in our studies.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Stanfield, you talked about veterans serving veterans. I really appreciate that. In the United States, 30% of their caseworkers are actually veterans. In Canada we don't have a number. We put a lot of pressure on the government, and they finally came up with the number of 10%, which they'd like to see by 2020.

Can you articulate how important it would be for veterans coming through your facility who want to serve, are committed to serving their country, to be given the opportunity after rehabilitation to come back and serve their comrades?

[Angus Stanfield]

I'm sure it would be a help, because they identify much more easily with them. The majority of the caseworkers, at least in Victoria and area, are young professional people, so they wouldn't have had the opportunity to have that previous experience, in many cases. I think they're accepted just as professionals who care, once we get them hooked up. To do what you're saying, however, when you say that 30% of caseworkers in the States have served, that could only be a good thing.