We certainly haven't seen the numbers decline. If anything, we're seeing more, but I think that might be due to the fact that we have more and more volunteers out in the streets looking.
I think improvements have been made. I know the department has assigned a case manager in each district specifically to be the homeless point of contact who will oversee issues of veteran homelessness. I think that's a positive step.
The fact that the department awarded us a contract in itself I think speaks to the fact that they've recognized there is an issue. When we started in 2010, we went to Veterans Affairs in Halifax, and the case manager we talked to said there were no homeless veterans because they had brochures printed up and took them to the shelters and nobody called them. Therefore, there were no homeless veterans. We had already found three in Halifax at that point.
That was 2010. Fast-forward to 2014, and we are awarded a contract in the field of veterans homelessness outreach. I think that speaks to some progress being made. Then there's the fact that the department is willing to work more and more with community organizations like ours. Like the shelters, they're getting more involved and more interested, and I think they're taking the issue more seriously. I think improvements have been made.