Thank you, Faith.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Again, I apologize for the technical difficulties this afternoon.
My name is Robert Tomljenovic and I'm the Area Director for the southwestern Ontario area at Veterans Affairs Canada. I am responsible for about 100 employees located in five area offices and service locations and three integrated personnel support centres, or IPSCs, serving over 12,120 veterans living in the area.
I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee. I'm happy to be here with Faith to provide more details about our work to prevent and address veteran homelessness on the ground.
As you know, homelessness can result from a magnitude of life situations that an individual may experience. Research indicates that veterans, like the general population, become homeless as a result of complex and interrelated issues such as health status, personal problems, employment instability, poverty, lack of affordable housing, addiction issues and others.
However, veterans are unique from the rest of the population in that their experience within the military may have significantly contributed to the factors that led them into homelessness. Some veterans have faced extreme situations such as combat, injuries, high levels of stress, and long absences from families, home and supports.
The goal for us, as the front-line team for Veterans Affairs, is to create an increased awareness with our community partners to help identify homeless veterans. To do so we have adopted a few strategies.
Our case managers and other VAC staff work with a number of community organizations to identify homeless veterans in the local areas via a number of outreach initiatives, such as reaching out to local shelters and first responders and engaging in community activities geared towards assisting the homeless population.
Veterans Affairs Canada has 38 office sites across the country, and our staff within each location is working with veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and with local homeless organizations and service providers.
We also work closely with the Canadian Armed Forces to improve the transition of members from military to civilian life. Early intervention is one of the most critical components of a successful transition process and can prevent difficulties that may result in homelessness.
As Faith mentioned, since April 1, 2018, we also have the veterans emergency fund which allows us to attend to immediate financial distress as quickly as possible at any time of the day—evenings, nights and weekends.
We have veterans service agents across the country available on call. These VSAs have been trained on how to apply the veterans emergency fund and they have access to subject matter experts to help them with any complex cases.
We understand the needs of veterans in Calgary can differ from those in Halifax. We must be flexible and nimble to adjust to the needs of the person and the community.
VAC is the catalyst to bring key partners and stakeholders together, such as VETS Canada, the Royal Canadian Legion, Soldiers Helping Soldiers, Veterans Helping Veterans, Aboriginal Veterans Autochtones, and other organizations focused on the issue.
Continued discussion and dialogue among all of our organizations is an essential part of the way forward to preventing and ending veteran homelessness.
Thank you again for the invitation to speak to you today.