Grassroots groups have been stepping up to fill what some see as a gap between the government's clear responsibility for providing support for veterans without housing and what it provides.
OTTAWA -- Dan Campbell and Benjamin Van Eck were fast friends while serving in 2 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery.
Van Eck's death was a tragic reminder of the disproportionate number of veterans who end up unhoused and on the streets after serving the country. And while Ottawa has been promising a plan to address the problem for years, it has yet to deliver. There are no definitive statistics when it comes to the number of homeless veterans, but estimates have placed the figure between 3,000 and 5,000.
The following month, the House of Commons adopted a unanimous motion calling on the government to "set a goal to prevent and end veteran homelessness by 2025" and present a plan to fulfil that objective by June 2020 with special consideration of a housing benefit. "There have been a few pilot projects that have happened," she says. "And when the pilot projects are done, all those veterans ended up back on the streets, and they become very mistrustful of the government and they don't want anything to do with pilot projects."
During the last federal election, the Liberals promised to set aside a special stream specifically for veterans' housing projects but have not provided details.