Veterans Affairs committee  That is correct. I can also tell you that we have active and currently serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces living in cars. The housing crisis is such that over the past year we have seen three veterans who have been posted to areas where they cannot afford housing and

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. For currently serving members, the ones we have found living in their cars, we've helped them with temporary accommodations—put them in hotels—and then helped with finding affordable housing. We assign a volunteer to help them diligently look for housing. The housing is out

Veterans Affairs committee  We've learned that there are lots of circumstances that lead to homelessness, with financial need being one of them. We do support veterans who are not homeless but could possibly be on the trajectory to become homeless because of a financial crisis. Lots of mental health issues

Veterans Affairs committee  We actually see that about 20% of the veterans coming to us looking for support are women. That's been an increase over the last couple of years. I would say, probably about seven or eight years ago, we were only at about 13% of female veterans on our caseload. Now we're between

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for inviting me to speak with you today as you undertake this very important study on the experience of women veterans. Honestly, I find it disheartening that in 2023 there is an overwhelming need to even have this conversation. As a n

Veterans Affairs committee  I have to agree with what Harry said, that the strategy would have to be very flexible, because veterans come in all shapes and sizes. We've supported veterans who are indigenous, they're African Canadian, they're from the LGBTQ community, so the military has the same demographic

Veterans Affairs committee  The way we measure success is that basically, when it comes to employment, we refer veterans to different organizations. I mentioned Forces@WORK and Helmets to Hardhats, but to be perfectly honest, the most success we have had with getting some of our veterans employed has been w

Veterans Affairs committee  The Beacon of Hope program is actually just what we do every day. Unfortunately for us, when we're applying for funding, we are asked for a project or a program. Our entire organization is a project, so the Beacon of Hope is basically what we do regularly: supporting veterans to

Veterans Affairs committee  For the veterans we support, we've analyzed the stats that we keep, and we've learned that the average amount of time that passes from the time a veteran releases from the military to their first episode of homelessness is about 10 years. The majority of veterans who come to us f

Veterans Affairs committee  There are some tools and resources out there, but veterans just aren't really aware of them. The education and training benefit is a really good benefit, as I said, as long as the veterans know about it. Unfortunately, they're not always told by their case managers about these be

Veterans Affairs committee  We have been told over the last several years that the department is working on it. They are trying to figure out a way to provide us with some sort of ongoing funding. Currently, applying for the funding on an ongoing basis from the veteran and family well-being fund is stressfu

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  The veterans emergency fund allows for veterans to receive up to $2,500 a year for things in an emergency situation, to help maintain safety and shelter. The issue we have with the veterans emergency fund is that it's not consistently administered across the country. The case man

Veterans Affairs committee  It is a big amount of money. The first thing that popped into my head when I read that article was that the billion dollars would go a long way to clear up the backlog. That money could be spent on that. Honestly, hearing that all of that money was returned was a bit dishearteni

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a great benefit for the veterans who know about it. Again, as I mentioned in my remarks, a lot of veterans aren't aware of what they're entitled to, and the education training benefit is no different. We had a veteran last week who was going to school. He was three terms int