Canada’s Veteran’s Ombudsman says one homeless veteran is too many.
And in order to help repay a debt to the men and women who have served our country, the federal government needs to create a national homelessness strategy aimed at keeping them off the streets.
“We’re not talking about social services here,” said Veteran’s Ombudsman Guy Parent. “We’re talking about a debt that needs to be repaid to injured soldiers and RCMP officers. There has to be a strategy from the government to meet their obligations.”
Parent, who has been Veteran’s Ombudsman since 2010, said part of his work in recent years has been to raise the issue of homeless veterans to greater prominence. The ombudsman’s office launched a veteran’s homelessness campaign in 2008, Leave Nobody Behind, and it has resulted in the creation of a series of outreach projects.
Those need to morph into full-time, federally-funded programs, he said.
“What we’d like to see is Veteran’s Affairs Canada come up with a national strategy to deal with homeless veterans,” he said. “Especially in a emergency situations.”
Parent said it can currently be hard to identify homeless veterans and ensure former soldiers receive the help they’re entitled to.
“For someone on the street that doesn’t have I.D. or a home address it becomes very complicated,” he said.
But Parent lauded local groups like Toronto’s Good Shepherd Ministries for their grassroots, and self-funded efforts, to deal with the problem. He toured the Queen St. E. shelter recently and commended the facility.
“In the Canadian Military and the RCMP the transition to civilian life can be 100 fold harder than other life situations,” he said. “People come from a very structured environment where everything is done for you.”