Evidence of meeting #102 for Veterans Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Colleen Yee,  Centralized Operations Services Section, Operations Division, Vancouver Police Department
Alyson Smith  Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department
Matthew Pearce  President and Chief Executive Officer, Old Brewery Mission
Karen Ludwig  New Brunswick Southwest, Lib.
Shaun Chen  Scarborough North, Lib.
David Howard  President, Homes for Heroes Foundation
Tim Richter  President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness

3:40 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

I absolutely do.

I am not a veteran myself, but certainly in the police culture we have a certain way of speaking to each other. If that's what you mean, I do think it would be helpful and useful to be able to have that type of conversation.

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

Yes. As I said, we've encountered this quite often, and we need to bring more people from military backgrounds into case management and into other things dealing with veterans. With the mental issues that may drive a veteran to homelessness—certainly PTSD could be one—you'd be well aware of what that might entail in terms of behaviours.

3:40 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

Yes, I think that's a really interesting point, having a case manager, potentially, who has a military background.

I can only speak from a police perspective, but there are certain things that you would say to the public and there are certain things that you would say to a colleague. I have a feeling that it might be similar with somebody who has served in the military. They might be embarrassed or have difficulty relating to the general public, whereas I think they can relate a bit more to somebody who has a background that's similar to theirs. I think case management—

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

Right. If you're trying to talk somebody down, if there's a suicidal event, you could have a set of terms that would make them feel more comfortable to open up to you rather than step back.

3:40 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

Absolutely.

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think I've made my point.

3:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis

Mr. Johns, you have six minutes.

3:40 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Thank you.

Thank you both for the important work that you do. I know you have huge challenges there in Vancouver. I'm from the west coast myself.

Do you have an estimate as to how many or what percentage of veterans are represented in the Vancouver homeless population, even just a rough idea?

3:40 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

At our last count it was 8%. Again, that's self-identified.

3:40 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Yes, it was self-identified.

How many were female veterans in particular? Do you have that number?

3:40 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

That's a great question. I don't know.

3:40 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

In your experience, what special needs do you feel homeless and vulnerable veterans might have that other homeless people might not?

3:45 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

I think it's probably the trauma, the things they've seen and the things they've dealt with. I think that's quite different from our general population.

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Do you see any special needs that vulnerable female veterans might have that perhaps the other population might not?

3:45 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

It's a great question. I can't think of a female veteran I've come across. It would be a guess.

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

I'm from B.C., as I said. We've seen real estate go up about 50% in the last three years. Has the rapid appreciation of housing costs in our province over the last decade affected your work, especially around homelessness?

3:45 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

Absolutely. Our numbers are skyrocketing. They are larger than we've ever seen before.

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

I believe you. Even though I'm on Vancouver Island, a lot of people are migrating there as well.

On that question, are you seeing a local population or are you seeing a transient population? As west coasters, we've always had people come into our communities, but we're seeing a lot of people now come from the mainland to the island because of the challenges that we're all facing with the pressure on downtown Vancouver.

Are you seeing that population mainly localized, or is it still fairly transient?

3:45 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

It's still quite transient. There certainly are our locals who have been around for a long time, but we do have a large population of people who are travelling across the country. Maybe they have warrants in other provinces. The west coast is the last stop, as is Vancouver, and maybe the island now. We certainly do see that.

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

Are you seeing the demographics changing around the city? It was primarily Eastside-centric, right? Are you seeing that shift?

3:45 p.m.

Homeless Outreach Coordinator, Centralized Operations Services Section, Vancouver Police Department

Cst Alyson Smith

Yes, I would say that we are not so localized anymore.

3:45 p.m.

Insp Colleen Yee

There are homeless all throughout the city now—on the west side, in the south. They're popping up in small groups. They're maybe not as large as the Downtown Eastside.

Vancouver right now has a 1% vacancy rate for rentals, so that itself is a challenge for any person in the market for rental accommodation. The skyrocketing prices of rentals has marginalized those who need income-assistance kinds of support. That type of housing isn't available for them.

We're not seeing the same kind of homelessness that the States is in regard to being so poor that they can't afford a house, or the rent has gone up and they've been booted out. That is happening, but not at the same rate as in the States.

I was in the States back in September, and we visited Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco. We visited the heart of all of the homeless centres there. The problems there are similar in the sense of mental health, drug addiction, and a huge representation of veterans in the States who are homeless. We're not quite there yet back here.

In regard to housing the current homeless we do have—and because of the low vacancy rate and the high rent—as Alyson mentioned in the beginning, we have modular housing that we've been implementing, on top of the supportive housing, government-assisted housing. That seems to be helping to alleviate the immediate numbers right now.

How many of those get housed as veterans I am not quite sure. We haven't been keeping official records of that yet, but moving forward, I think that's a good thing to know.

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

In the States, 30% of the caseworkers in their Veterans Affairs are actually veterans, so it's veterans serving veterans.

3:45 p.m.

Insp Colleen Yee

That's right.

3:45 p.m.

NDP

Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC

We touched on that a little earlier.

Here in Ottawa, Veterans Affairs didn't have a target until June to have 10% veterans working for Veterans Affairs by 2020 so that there are veterans serving veterans.

You identified the importance of that and of that understanding, that speaking the same language piece. Can you speak about the importance of that? Maybe in your own department, are you seeing colleagues who end up on the street who are suffering from PTSD after their career, or if they're released early? What programs do you have as a city to help to support your own colleagues?