THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Wednesday, April 22, 2026
The Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs met with videoconference this day at 12 p.m. [ET] to examine and report on issues relating to Veterans Affairs, including services and benefits provided, commemorative activities, and the continuing implementation of the Veterans Well-being Act.
Senator Dawn Anderson (Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Chair: Honourable senators, welcome to this meeting of the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs. I am Dawn Anderson, senator for the Northwest Territories and chair of the subcommittee. I am joined today by my fellow subcommittee members, whom I welcome to introduce themselves.
Senator Ince: Thank you all for coming. Tony Ince, senator from Nova Scotia.
Senator Muggli: Tracy Muggli, senator from Saskatchewan and Treaty 6 territory.
Senator Patterson: Rebecca Patterson, Ontario.
Senator MacAdam: Jane MacAdam, Prince Edward Island.
Senator McNair: Welcome. John McNair from the province of New Brunswick.
The Chair: Colleagues, today we meet to continue our work on the topic of veterans’ homelessness. We have the pleasure of welcoming three organizations today, all of which are recipients of the Veteran Homelessness Program.
I extend our welcome to Colonel Gerald Potter, Executive Director, Ottawa Innercity Ministries; Marie Blackburn, Executive Director, Veterans Association; and, by video conference from Centre CASA, Marc-Antoine Guérin, Deputy Director General and Clinical Director, and Geneviève Caron, Uniform Program Manager and Psychosocial Counsellor. Thank you all for joining us and for the work that you do.
We will begin by inviting you to provide your opening remarks, to be followed by questions from our members. I remind you that you have five minutes for this opening statement.
We will begin today with Colonel Potter. Welcome. Please proceed when you are ready.
Colonel (Ret’d) Gerald Potter, Executive Director, Ottawa Innercity Ministries: Thank you. It’s an honour to be here. I’m grateful that I’m sitting in a room with my favourite provinces: the Maritimes, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
My short introduction is simply about what we do for veterans at Ottawa Innercity Ministries, OIM. It began in 2019 when Ken MacLaren, who was the executive director at the time, had seen many veterans on the streets of Ottawa who were homeless and impoverished. In his view, this wasn’t right, so he started a program. Initially, it was simply to build community amongst men and women who were isolated veterans on the streets of Ottawa, who operated on the periphery more so than anyone else whom we encountered on the streets.
This program has grown since 2019. It was interfered with, of course, by the pandemic. We rely upon and build community by bringing veterans together, providing meals and support.
Initially, it was very uncertain how the veterans would respond. Over the years, we have developed services so that today we are providing assistance with help, of course, from Veterans Affairs Canada and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. We provide veterans with housing opportunities. We provide food. We provide clothing. We provide an actual community so that they can come together and build friendships when they used to be isolated.
We follow them in terms of how they are doing in their well-being. We are there for them when they are hospitalized. We are there, unfortunately, when they pass away. We attend those funerals.
One word that defines what I find is happening amongst our volunteers and staff is love. We love these people. In their minds, they have been — and I’m not saying everybody does this — pushed aside and isolated.
That’s what we do at Ottawa Innercity Ministries. It is a privilege to do it, and it is a joy.
The Chair: Thank you, Colonel Potter.
Next, we’ll hear from Ms. Mari Blackburn.
Marie Blackburn, Executive Director, Veterans Association: Hello, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today. It is both a pleasure and an honour.
At the Veterans Association, our mandate is simple: It is to prevent hunger, homelessness, isolation and, ultimately, veteran suicides.
Over the past seven and a half years, we’ve come face to face with veterans’ homelessness. I’ll be honest. It’s been both sobering and, at times, preventable. No one chooses homelessness. Every veteran we meet has a different path that has led them there, whether it’s a lack of affordable housing, insufficient income, family breakdown, unresolved trauma or difficulty transitioning from military to civilian life. In many cases, delays in accessing support systems only make things worse.
At the Veterans Association, we look at homelessness in two ways: those who are already homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless.
When a veteran comes to us in crisis, our first priority is simple: safety first. We get them off the street and provide food, clothing and immediate support. From there, our focus in the first few months is stabilization: helping them secure identification, access income and open a bank account. These may seem like small steps, but they are critical to rebuilding independence.
We’re fortunate to operate both a food bank and a thrift store, which allows veterans to reconnect through volunteering, skill building and community. In many cases, this has led to employment, but more importantly, it restores something many have lost, and that is a sense of purpose.
Housing remains one of our biggest challenges, especially in Calgary. Affordable options are very limited. We’ve had to be creative, pairing younger veterans with older veterans, working with retirement residences and partnering with other organizations to find suitable housing. Every solution is individualized.
For many veterans, addiction is also part of the picture. While treatment spaces exist, cost is often the barrier, not availability.
With support from Veterans Affairs Canada, we’ve been able to place veterans into recovery programs with strong outcomes. Without that support, many would return to the streets. But just as important, if not more so, is prevention.
We’ve spent many years helping veterans stay housed by covering rent, mortgages, child care and medical costs because once someone ends up on the street, the challenges multiply and the chances of recovery decrease significantly.
Two years ago, we received funding from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada to address veteran homelessness. In the past three months alone, that funding has allowed us to provide $448,000 in emergency shelter, $216,000 in wraparound services, $227,000 in rental assistance and $559,000 in food security. That is a total of $1.45 million directly supporting veterans in crisis. This funding has been critical not just in helping those who are already homeless but in preventing many more from ever getting there.
Our work now extends from Manitoba to British Columbia, with an increasing focus on regions like Vancouver, where the need continues to grow. Through partnerships with Veterans Affairs Canada and programs like the Veterans Homelessness Program, VHP, we are creating real pathways to housing, recovery and stability. We will continue to expand and adapt because the needs of veterans are not static.
But one thing remains constant: When we remove barriers and provide the right support at the right time, we change outcomes. In many cases, we save lives.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today.
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Blackburn.
Finally, we’ll hear from Mr. Marc-Antoine Guérin.
[Translation]
Marc-Antoine Guérin, Deputy Director General and Clinical Director, Centre CASA: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to attend this important meeting.
I’m the clinical director of Centre CASA. The centre is located in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures in the Quebec City region.
The Centre CASA’s mission is to work in addiction treatment and prevention. For 30 years, we’ve been working with people in the community, including military members, uniformed personnel and veterans. We’ve had addiction therapy programs for gambling, cyberaddiction, alcohol and drugs — substance abuse — for a long time.
Recently, we’ve also been focusing on the prevention of homelessness among veterans. Veterans will receive approximately 28 days of addiction treatment, as well as prevention services and assistance with social reintegration if they’re facing homelessness or housing instability. Veterans Affairs Canada helps us prevent homelessness and assist with social reintegration by providing grants. It’s much appreciated.
Basically, we provide customized programs. We offer short or long programs, respite programs or programs to recharge your batteries.
We’re honoured to be speaking here today. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I’ll turn the floor over to my colleague, who is in charge of the Uniform program. She’ll provide more details.
Thank you.
Geneviève Caron, Uniform Program Manager and Psychosocial Counsellor, Centre CASA: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the invitation, as my colleague said.
For over 20 years, we’ve been providing the Uniform program at the Centre CASA. Working with these clients gives us a thorough understanding of the issues and difficulties that military and veteran clients may face. These people face issues such as addiction, chronic pain, operational stress injuries, mental health problems, financial difficulties and housing instability.
Housing instability, the risk of homelessness and homelessness were some difficulties that we saw on a daily basis during veterans’ stays with us. We could see a number of difficulties, such as issues with adapting to civilian life, trust issues, transition problems, emotional management issues and isolation. These were some of the factors observed.
When the opportunity arose in May 2024 to contribute to the Veteran Homelessness Program, for us it was a natural fit. It really aligned with the work that we were already doing. As an addiction treatment facility, we needed to take into account all matters related to substance use, which could easily lead to financial difficulties and housing instability.
In May, we embarked on the project with a multidisciplinary team that focuses on these people. At our facility, we have a nurse, educators and psychosocial counsellors with various academic backgrounds. We also have a full-time educator on the team. We wanted to improve the service that we were already providing.
We wanted to take it a step further. The goal was to prevent homelessness, but also to improve housing stability, which we noted in our follow-ups with these people. We wanted to enhance and extend the follow-ups. We really wanted to provide assistance with access to housing. This program gave us the opportunity to take a concrete approach and apply what we learned in order to promote recovery, prevent relapses and better equip these people with life skills.
We also work a great deal with family and friends, who play a key role in the recovery of these people. We develop services with family and friends, both in therapy and in outpatient follow‑ups.
In the first year, 2024-25, nine stays were geared towards the homelessness program. In the Uniform program, we have about one hundred admissions or stays a year. Around 60% of our clients are veterans. However, if we look specifically at the homelessness program, in the first year, we had nine stays. In the year that just ended, we had 24 stays. We can see a clear increase in the number of stays and greater recognition of our expertise and services.
When people arrive at our facility, we assess their housing stability, but we also provide a care program and an action plan. We address this combination of addiction issues, mental health problems and housing instability or risk of homelessness. We really work on these factors throughout the stay.
The good news is that we’ve been able to further enhance this service. We had already been developing this project for a number of years. We had the opportunity to provide social reintegration accommodation. We’ve been providing this service since January 2026. We had one room for social reintegration. Since April 1, we’ve been providing two full-time rooms for social reintegration stays. In any case, we realized that the needs existed, that these needs were significant and that housing instability could be addressed over a longer period rather than just during therapy. Given the increased needs identified through the Veteran Homelessness Program, we felt that it would be fitting and appropriate to provide up to three months of social reintegration. As an organization, we applied for certification, which we quickly obtained. We created specific workshops on social reintegration. We now provide this service. We have two rooms and we could potentially have up to five rooms. That would be one of our goals, because we can see a potential demand.
In closing, we can also see an impact on addiction, on the maintenance of abstinence, on the prevention of relapse and on people’s sense of confidence and competence after coming to stay with us. They can see themselves in a meaningful civilian role. They get back in touch with people who matter to them, who support them and who don’t abandon them. I won’t list all the steps, but we take specific steps with them. We can see progress in their personal planning, stability and independence. We can measure it and observe it. These stays are much appreciated.
[English]
The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Guérin and Ms. Caron.
We will now proceed to questions. In order to maximize the number of questions, four minutes will be allotted for each question, including the answer. I ask that you keep your questions succinct and that you identify which witnesses your questions are directed to.
I would like to offer the first question to our deputy chair, Senator Ince.
Senator Ince: Thank you all for being here. My first question is open to everyone.
Understanding how homelessness is defined and measured is essential to assessing this scope among veterans. This includes not only absolute homelessness but also hidden homelessness such as living in unstable or unsafe housing and those at risk of homelessness. How do your organizations define homelessness, and how do you identify or enumerate individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness in your work?
Ms. Blackburn: I can answer part of that. As I said in our talk there, we define it in two different ways: they are homeless and living on the streets or — you’re absolutely right — there is that component of living in what we call rough housing.
Collaborating with many different organizations downtown, our city police services and Alberta Health Services, identifying anybody who ends up in hospital or jail who is at risk of becoming homeless, is one component of it.
Then we have your everyday veteran who maybe has had a job, lost a job, a marital breakdown or whatever the case may be. That is where our wraparound services come into play, where we can actually pay their rent or bills so they don’t become homeless.
The VHP money has been absolutely critical to prevent our veterans from becoming homeless and getting those who are on the streets off the streets. We find that many of the veterans on the streets do not identify as being veterans. We have communicated with some of the outreach workers, and we ask them to ask people if they have served, not to ask them if they are a veteran. We have found that when you ask somebody if they are a veteran, they are ashamed that they have gone from being a proud member of society to where they are today.
As we say, everybody is an individual. Everybody has a different set of circumstances. We try to address all of those equally.
Col. Potter: That is great. I echo that.
At OIM, we run teams every night on the streets of Ottawa. It is principally through those teams that we find veterans, and then networking occurs where veterans are telling other veterans about what we are offering. We are also integrated or connected with Veterans’ House Canada here in Ottawa. We provide services to those who come from that facility.
For us, it’s principally our boots on the ground, as we call it — teams are out every night — and networking. Occasionally, our networking will lead us to discover veterans who are living not just rough but in the forests around Ottawa.
When we connect with them, generally, if they’ve gotten themselves into that situation, housing them is a long way off. That is a long-term goal. Providing them with tents and sleeping bags — I know this sounds horrible in Ottawa in the wintertime — provides them with a level of assistance and support that is of good quality for them.
That is how we find them. Once we, in a manner of speaking, find them, then we stay connected. We will provide cell phones so that we can stay in touch, and, in a manner of speaking, we track them. If we do not hear from them in a week or two, we reach out to connect or find a network that is connected to them to ensure they are okay.
Senator McNair: Thank you, witnesses, for the work you do every day and, as you just said, every night and for your service to those who served our country. We appreciate that.
We struggle with trying to find the data to tell us what the real numbers are. I know you deal with that on a daily basis. Some of the most emotional testimony we have had before us at this committee was from three veterans who were homeless or who had experienced homelessness. Their very truthful and raw testimony was — you four see it every day.
Homelessness has grown in Canada since the pandemic, with the proportion of individuals in unsheltered locations doubling from 14% to 28% between 2018 and 2024. Does that match what you have seen in your own work? How has it affected or put more stressors on your organization?
Then I’m curious to know your views on this: To what extent is veterans’ homelessness still a problem that can be solved, or has it become just a chronic reality that will continue to grow?
Col. Potter: Those are big questions. Those are questions that almost don’t have answers.
Have the numbers increased? Yes, much in accordance with the percentages you have just noted. We see this every day, every week in the numbers we serve. It has grown. We seek and work hard to adapt by increasing the funding we receive through donations and grants so we can meet the needs.
Are we meeting the needs? Barely. When our teams go out in the evening and night, we go out with a certain number of goods and we stay out until they are all gone. Could we stay out longer? Yes, but we don’t have the volunteers or the goods.
It is a problem. It is a bit like an insatiable hunger: It is difficult to satisfy.
The other question you had was about whether veterans’ homelessness is solvable — maybe those weren’t the exact words — or if it can be resolved. As long as we’re going to have veterans, we’re going to run into similar circumstances because the experience of veterans, where they serve for a while, develop an identity and then they leave and take off the uniform, and whatever happened to them during their service compiled with the loss of identity — that is a big one — results in all kinds of maladaptive behaviours. I’m certain everybody here can attest to that reality.
I don’t think veterans’ homelessness will go away, but I think we’re getting a lot better at serving it and meeting it.
Ms. Blackburn: Within our organization, we’re just now getting better cooperation with the other resources out there that deal with homelessness, and bringing those veterans to us has made a world of difference. We find there are many veterans who have not dealt with their mental health issues. Sometimes, like my dad, they can go 95 years without ever really talking about it. For some of them now, it is catching up with them, and that starts affecting their family life. They sometimes end up becoming homeless.
Are we ever going to solve this problem? No, I don’t believe we will, but I think, just for our organization over the past seven and a half years, the difference we have made in getting veterans off the street and preventing homelessness has been significant.
[Translation]
Ms. Caron: Their situation is often multifactorial. At Centre CASA, we often see the type of homelessness where people aren’t yet on the street or they’re almost there. We’ve had maybe one or two cases of people who actually lived on the street. We also work with community organizations and other referrers. We’re the only ones in Quebec City who address addiction and homelessness together. So we must work with other community organizations that focus on homelessness. These organizations know what they’re doing. When people are open to coming to work on addiction as well, the organizations refer them to us. However, they often aren’t on the street. As you said, we also see very isolated people who live in the woods or who move from trailer to trailer, housing to housing or motel to motel. We see this type of instability. In their case, the downward spiral happens quickly, at a dizzying speed.
Mr. Guérin: When we take them in here, we realize that their sense of security hasn’t been established. They distrust counsellors, resources and society. First, we try to make them feel safe and stable. All this sheds light on the extent of the issues in the various areas of a person’s life, and not just the substance use that has become an unsuitable solution to their situation. Yet once a person has gone through withdrawal, meaning drug addiction treatment, a host of concerns and needs come to light. We need to assess these issues with the person in order to prioritize everything. Okay, they need to have a roof over their head, to make friends again and to reconnect with their case manager at Veterans Affairs Canada in order to receive therapeutic or financial support.
When we manage to bring them into the centre, we identify the different needs in the various areas of their life. We can then support them by prioritizing their needs throughout the service process. We need the time to do this. The social reintegration process gives us more time to work with them. That’s it.
[English]
Senator Muggli: I have all kinds of questions. Thank you so much, everyone, for what you do. It is certainly appreciated. I am certain that you save many lives. I have a 35-year career in mental health and substance use disorders, so I am very familiar with the changes you can make in people’s lives with the right supports.
I will start with Colonel Potter and Ms. Blackburn around the programs you operate. Do you have supportive programs like a managed alcohol program or an opioid agonist therapy program with methadone or Suboxone, knowing that the operational stress injuries that many veterans have and pain management issues may lead to narcotic dependence? Some people might call those programs “harm reduction”; I call them treatment. Are you able to integrate those kinds of supports into your programs?
I will start with Colonel Potter.
Col. Potter: No, we don’t as of yet. I have made a proposal to our board of directors. It would be a significant evolution. You know better than I do what you need to put in place.
Senator Muggli: I know, with methadone and whatnot, even having mental health nursing support for medication management — is that something you have?
Col. Potter: No, we do not.
Senator Muggli: Okay. Is there a barrier around finances and being able to pay for such programs?
Col. Potter: It is a combination of finances and skill set. You need the finances to afford the skill set. Once you have the finances and the skill set, then you need the environment or location. There are at least three pieces to this puzzle. It’s a big step. We are progressing, but we are not yet ready to take that step today.
Senator Muggli: Do you find you have to turn away veterans because you don’t have those kinds of program options?
Col. Potter: No, we do not turn away veterans no matter what their state is physically or mentally or if they’re intoxicated. If they’re causing stress to other veterans, then we’ll have them come back at another time, but even so, we work to serve them no matter where they’re at, all at the same time as creating a safe environment. We also refer our veterans who are struggling with substance abuse. We will refer them gently because, first and foremost, we want to maintain contact and a relationship with them. If they don’t — and sometimes they don’t — accept the referral, there’s no judgment: “You’re welcome here; just be safe with the rest of the group.”
Senator Muggli: Are they able to use substances while they’re living there?
Col. Potter: They don’t live with us. We provide an environment, a building, where they can come to meet. No, we don’t allow using on our site, and we don’t allow heavily intoxicated people or those on whatever drug because it triggers others.
Senator Muggli: Sorry. I misunderstood.
Col. Potter: That’s okay.
Ms. Blackburn: We don’t have anything in-house, but we’re pretty fortunate that we have an organization called NAM two blocks from us, and they will take in any veteran in distress with any addiction immediately. From there, we try to get Veterans Affairs Canada to get them into a longer-term care facility, and therein lies the problem because the availability isn’t always there and the cost of some of these places is just out of reach unless Veterans Affairs can cover that cost.
Senator Muggli: And sometimes it’s all about timing to get someone into a service when they have that open window of motivation.
Ms. Blackburn: For example, before we found NAM, we had a veteran who stayed sober for five weeks. That was huge for him. He was a very severe alcoholic. In that time frame, we tried to get him into treatment, but he failed in week 6 because he wasn’t eligible until week 12. Having NAM now as one of our partners is nice because we can send them there. They have a group home setting where they can go and at least start detoxing.
Senator Muggli: What does NAM stand for?
Ms. Blackburn: I don’t know what it stands for.
Senator Muggli: Is it a detox?
Ms. Blackburn: It is a recovery centre started by a doctor. We met him doing food outreach on the streets, and he said, “Whenever you have a veteran, they are our priority.” We kind of lucked out with that.
Senator Patterson: Thank you very much for all of your testimony. There is a wonderful spectrum of supporters that we have here, from the street side, in both your cases, to the housing and treatment domains. I think I’ll start with our team from Quebec.
[Translation]
It’s quite difficult to connect with veterans, certainly for a full‑time treatment program. How do you find veterans? What type of referral is involved? That’s my first question. Is there a network for consultations, referrals and so on?
Ms. Caron: At CASA Centre, we work closely with Veterans Affairs Canada, which refers veterans to us for therapy. We also work with certain community organizations that focus on homelessness and that serve as our eyes and ears for veterans who may not be connected with a case manager at Veterans Affairs Canada. They can refer these veterans to us. At that point, we can take the veterans on, even if they aren’t connected with a case manager. We recognize the service here. We have the process to implement this and we’ll work with them on this. We can connect them with a case manager if that’s what they want and if they qualify. However, most referrals are made through Veterans Affairs Canada.
Senator Patterson: Thank you.
Mr. Guérin, would you like to add anything?
Mr. Guérin: Yes. There’s word of mouth. Coming to therapy often helps these veterans reconnect with their social network, which includes veterans and old friends. They sometimes manage to get back in touch and explain what they’re going through and describe the resources available to access treatment and get off the street. The network and word of mouth play a powerful role among brothers in arms.
Moreover, sometimes we’ll have a person in treatment for addiction. We didn’t think that this person was on the street or that they needed housing stability. However, bringing this person into our care through different gateways — family and friends or other referrers — reveals the extent of the issues, including homelessness, that we hadn’t initially identified for this individual. Word of mouth then spreads, and we learn to make a name for ourselves through this service provided by our institution.
[English]
Senator Patterson: That network to connect people with the services you provide has been a challenge for people who are fundamentally invisible in society to begin with. We’ll go back to Colonel Potter and Madam Blackburn. Are you getting support from any of the regimental or veterans associations to help you create these networks, or do you have to go and create them yourselves? And the follow-on question to that was: What can we do to help this improve?
Col. Potter: For us, there is no direct assistance from the regimental system. However, we go to presentations for retiring members of the military. They invite us in so we can speak and introduce them to the services we provide, which gives us an opportunity for networking. Veterans Affairs Canada and the Legion provide referrals to us, so we also have that as a referral stream.
Ms. Blackburn: We’re pretty much the same. Because we hire a lot of veterans and it is a veterans’ community, we get a lot of support from the different regiments. We are very closely connected to the Legion and Veterans Affairs Canada.
Senator MacAdam: Thank you to the witnesses for being here today and for all the work you do for veterans.
My question is for Centre CASA. I just wanted to get a bit more background information on the types of services that you provide, the number of people that you see — some sorts of statistics — and whether you’re tracking these individuals. You also mentioned your prevention work. I’d like you to elaborate a bit more on that. You said that you do that with partners, so what are some of those partnerships in that prevention work?
[Translation]
Ms. Caron: I missed the beginning of your question on prevention. Are you asking about our partners and prevention efforts? I’m sorry. I missed the beginning of your question.
[English]
Senator MacAdam: I just wanted a bit more background information on the types of services you offer, the number of veterans that access the services and whether you’re tracking these veterans as they go through your programs and services.
[Translation]
Ms. Caron: As I said at the start, for the Uniform program, we have about one hundred admissions per year. Of these admissions, about 90% are military members or veterans.
We work with military members. This also constitutes a form of prevention, when we think about it, because they’re still active in their careers. We take proactive steps with them.
Around 60% of our clients are veterans. They share a common thread in terms of therapy. However, in this program, we have specific workshops for these clients. We’ll work on the human side of the uniform, emotional management, post-traumatic stress disorder and the connection between symptoms and addiction. These workshops will address the difficulties and issues that they may encounter. We’re used to working with Veterans Affairs Canada. We understand their issues and realities.
We’ll work with the community organizations that help them with the transition. We provide the core part of the therapy. We also give them the opportunity to come and recharge their batteries once the therapy is over. If they feel at greater risk of losing their skills, if they’re afraid of relapsing or if they’re going through a more difficult period, they can spend from one to three weeks with us in order to recharge their batteries.
We also provide the opportunity to come to the centre at short notice for respite stays. These stays are strictly limited to military members and veterans. When they need to step out of their environment quickly, they can come to our supervised and structured environment and find a safe place again. They can move in quickly for a few days.
For post-therapy follow-ups, we have skills maintenance groups run by Centre CASA counsellors. These follow-ups take place once a week. Our peer helper also provides telephone follow-ups. We’re fortunate to have a peer helper on the team. He’s a veteran who has struggled with addiction and post‑traumatic stress disorder. He’s been clean for years. This is important for the team and for the veterans. It matters a great deal to them for belonging purposes.
We also provide follow-ups. They can be either individual or group follow-ups. We’ll adapt to long-term needs. In addition, through our outpatient clinic, they can receive long-term follow‑ups on an individual basis.
Mr. Guérin: Over the years, our experience and expertise have shown us that, if we want to treat people properly and take care of their needs, we must do so at the different stages of the service process. We need to take proactive steps in prevention and health promotion during the treatment — the during, as we call it — and after the treatment. The more emphasis we place on the three phases, the greater the stability and the chances that the person will feel “reconnected” to society and civilian life and will develop a sense of belonging, not just to the resource and their peers, but to society as a whole. In this way, we have a greater impact.
We were talking earlier about how to address homelessness. We discussed how the issue is impossible to fully eradicate. I agree. However, we realized that, by providing customized support in all three phases, and then continuing the support after the 28 days of therapy, we could really boost the impact on housing stability, abstinence maintenance and addiction treatment, for example. We have the time to work with them.
To do this, we need the resources and money to work for as long as possible. We’re now able to work with them for three months. Before, we had between 28 and 40 days. We now have up to three months with the social reintegration process. We’re increasingly developing our expertise. We realize that we need to take our time and to provide a customized approach throughout the service process, both for groups and individuals.
[English]
The Chair: Thank you.
Before we move on to the second round, I just want to remind you to try to keep within the four minutes for the question and answer so that we can ensure that the next three senators can ask their questions and get their answers.
Senator McNair: My question is to Colonel Potter. It’s about the City of Ottawa receiving $10.5 million from the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative for its Community Encampment Response Plan, which was to eliminate unsheltered homelessness and to reduce chronic and veterans’ homelessness by 100% over 10 years.
We’re a little more than halfway through that. Have you seen reductions in unsheltered and chronic homelessness for veterans since the implementation of this program?
Col. Potter: Not as a result of municipal initiatives, sir.
Senator McNair: You talk about your boots-on-the-ground approach. I take it that the people you choose to do the boots on the ground have to have a specific personality and skill set. Could you comment on that a bit and how you get your members to do it?
Col. Potter: Certainly. The motivation is that they care about people, number one. And we screen them: We do police checks, we have interviews, and we put them through training. We expose them to the reality of the streets so they can make a decision about whether they will participate. Then we have team leads who, more or less, coach them and mentor them when they go out. We have maybe 40% who decide not to continue going out on the streets. It’s a bit of an intimidating environment. That’s what we do to screen our folks.
The number one requirement is motivation. What is your motivation? What do you hope to accomplish when you go out to meet people who are living homeless, addicted, have mental health issues or a combination of all three? I hope I answered the question.
Senator McNair: You did. Thank you.
Senator Muggli: I’d like to carry on with my discussion with Centre CASA. I just wanted to mention that I was very happy to hear that you extend beyond 28 days of treatment. I know that has been the standard for a long time, which actually originated with insurance agencies making rules about 28 days of funding, and we certainly know, especially with the different cocktails of substances out there, that brains need more recovery time before you can even absorb counselling and information. I’m really happy to hear that.
Could you tell me a little bit about what kind of support you provide and what that looks like? Do you accept people to the treatment program who might be using opioid agonist therapy?
[Translation]
Ms. Caron: As we said, we have specific workshops for them. They also have access to all the therapy centre’s services.
Our centre accepts service dogs. This is a bonus for clients who have a service dog. Sometimes, as part of the Veteran Homelessness Program, we must also take steps to help them obtain a service dog.
We provide a range of services, including physiotherapy and acupuncture. We also have nurses. We have a diverse team at the centre. The team works on prevention, treatment and the stay itself and at the outpatient clinic with family and friends.
Let’s talk about our facilities. It’s a wonderful centre. They each have their own room. They have access to a gym, a fitness room and walking trails.
They can find a safe place again with us and pick up good lifestyle habits at the same time, which plays a part in their stay here. We have a range of complementary services.
[English]
Senator Muggli: I’m sorry. Can I just interrupt for a second? I was interested in knowing whether you allow people to attend the program if they’re taking methadone for opioid recovery.
[Translation]
Mr. Guérin: Yes, we accept them. Our nurses and counsellors are trained. We’ve been able to admit them for about a year now.
[English]
Senator Muggli: Do you have psychiatry support?
[Translation]
Mr. Guérin: When we need a psychiatric assessment, we try to accompany them to the hospital to get them admitted to a psychiatric emergency service, or the nurses or counsellors try to contact the psychiatrists at the OSI clinic for veterans and try to make connections. Sometimes, they already have a psychiatrist and sometimes, they don’t have one. When they do have one, we bridge the gap with the consultation provided by the psychiatrist, psychologists and social workers at the OSI clinics. Otherwise, we try to create something by sending them to psychiatry and the psychiatric emergency service. This can be a step in the process. We also send a counsellor from our centre to the psychiatric service to bring them back to the centre, no matter how long the process takes. We see that this can be a step towards stabilizing their psychological health so that they can continue to receive our support afterwards.
[English]
Senator Muggli: Do you follow someone when they complete treatment in their transition to the community? Do you have a certain amount of time after which you discontinue services?
[Translation]
Mr. Guérin: Yes. We continue to provide services, particularly by telephone, but also in person. These telephone or in-person services can last up to a year. However, supposing they stay with us for three months, they may receive slightly closer follow-ups for two weeks to a month. After that, we’ll extend the follow-ups according to the person’s needs.
[English]
Senator Muggli: Thank you.
The Chair: We have two senators remaining to ask questions. Due to the time, I’m going to have both Senator Ince and Senator Patterson ask their questions, and then you can answer.
Senator Ince: My question is for anyone who would like to answer it. Ms. Caron touched on it briefly, and it is about preventative measures. Do your programs or initiatives include preventative or early intervention measures aimed at reducing those who might become unhoused?
Senator Patterson: We know that some of the most vulnerable veterans are women, 2SLGBTQ+, Indigenous and racialized veterans and serving members. For all of you, how do you find these people, and do you have volunteers in both of your groups who also come from these communities? It’s very easy to be invisible if you come from these communities.
The last question is for the Centre CASA team: Are you affiliated with any research facility in the work that you do?
Col. Potter: I’ll answer the first one. With respect to measures to lead, turn or prevent, the community that we have developed, and continue to develop, enables us to have a very close-contact understanding of the life circumstances of each of our veterans, and also the network of veterans keeps us informed about, for example, how Bob is doing or how John is doing. When we note individuals who are becoming at risk, we do a soft intervention. What does that mean? We just speak to them as friends: “How are you doing, John? We see this happening. What can I do to alleviate the stress that you’re under?” We maintain a very close personal relationship with all the veterans whom we are serving. That’s how we try to do preventative services.
Ms. Blackburn: Ours is very much the same. It’s veteran-orientated. Most of our veteran referrals come from Veterans Affairs Canada or other veterans. With respect to LGBTQ, Indigenous and our marginalized groups, we work extensively with each and every group. For example, the girl who runs our Lethbridge office is LGBTQ, so if we have issues that we’re not really familiar with, she helps with those.
For us, part of the preventative service is, for example, debt consolidation. We pay for something like that because there is no point in people having all these big payday loans and constantly chasing their tails. We try to do those things. We send people to credit counselling or family counselling, whatever it takes to keep that family unit together or get to a better financial spot, so that they are not facing that threat of homelessness.
Senator Patterson: For Colonel Potter, how are you looking at these communities on the streets that are, I would say, the invisible of the invisible, especially in the veteran community?
For our team at Centre CASA, what you all do is incredibly important work, but I wonder if you’re also affiliated with research organizations to help capture the lessons you’re learning through the work that you do. It can be from both sides.
Col. Potter: Referring to the communities, we are generic in whom we serve and, in a manner of speaking, we see everybody. Our population base includes all the demographic nuances that you’re referring to. We intentionally do not track demographic nuances. In my view, it prevents negative behaviour and negative treatment of people. We don’t track it. It doesn’t matter. We serve whomever needs to be served, no matter where they are.
Where we travel, in terms of our boots on the ground, we see everybody. We’re respected by the police because we see everybody, and as we serve, to a degree, we act as a buffer for very maladaptive behaviour patterns on the streets.
The Chair: If I can just interject, we have approximately two minutes left. If you’re not able to answer the question, Centre CASA, we would appreciate if you would provide a written response.
[Translation]
Ms. Caron: I could say that, as far as prevention is concerned, we provide treatment and follow-ups at the Centre CASA. In terms of prevention, we try to work alongside organizations in order to collaborate, make people aware of us and also assess — using the IRIS scale — the risk of housing instability or homelessness of all the people who come to us. That way, we can catch them at the start and draw up an appropriate action plan.
In terms of specific clients, such as women veterans, we accept them, of course. We provide services. We made a promotional video to try to make them feel welcome. However, we realize that they don’t show up as often as men. I think that this happens in a number of other services as well.
[English]
The Chair: Thank you.
This brings us to the end of the meeting. I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Ms. Blackburn, Ms. Caron, Mr. Guérin and Colonel Potter for taking the time to be with us today.
Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 29, at 12 p.m. in the same room. I wish everyone a good afternoon.
(The committee adjourned.)