Emergency Fund to Help Veterans in High Demand, Going Over Budget Every Year Since 2018: Documents

Outreach volunteers offer help to the homeless on a -20C night in Calgary, Alta., on Dec. 14, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

The Canadian government supported 501 veterans and their families with over $1 million in funding in the 2022-23 fiscal year, exceeding the program’s annual budget—as it has every year since the Veteran’s Emergency Fund was launched in 2018, according to documents.

“Every year since the program started in 2018 the demand for the Veterans Emergency Fund has been more than the $1 million in annual funding,” said a memo dated Dec. 2, 2022, from Veterans Affairs Canada.

The briefing note, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter and verified by The Epoch Times, said that since the program began on April 1, 2018, up until March 31, 2022, over $5.6 million was provided to veterans and their families to assist with “emergency financial situations that threaten their health and well-being.”

In the most recent fiscal year, the total cost ran over budget to $1.06 million dollars. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, over $1.361 million was provided to veterans facing emergency. The funding can be approved for food, shelter, basic clothing, one-time medical or dental needs, and personal care items.

Homeless Veterans

At least 2,400 former military members—including soldiers, sailors, and air crew—are homeless in Canada, according to Veterans Affairs Canada.

That figure came from a 2016 National Shelter Study that asked individuals utilizing shelters and missions if they had a military background. More recent figures are not available. The briefing note said surveys that followed suggest that the number of homeless veterans has doubled since the survey was last conducted.

Counts were temporarily halted due to COVID-19 and resumed in 2021.

“Accurately measuring the number of veterans experiencing homelessness is challenging. Homelessness is a complex issue,” says a Dec. 2, 2022, briefing note entitled Veteran Homelessness.

Veterans can receive a yearly maximum of up to $2,500 per veteran, per household, between April 1 of one year and March 31 of the next, and up to $10,000 in exceptional circumstances.

According to Blacklocks Reporter, a 2021 audit of the Veterans Emergency Fund quoted an employee that said grants saved former veterans from freezing to death in winter.

“I can use the Veterans Emergency Fund to provide a veteran a hotel room on a night when it is minus 40 and all the shelters are full,” said the Evaluation Of The Veterans Emergency Fund, quoting a staff member.

“I could literally save their life. But the next day the shelters are full and there are no affordable housing options.”

According to auditors, the program could not help everyone. In a two-year period, 2,576 appeals for funding were received, and 1,902 were approved. Most payments were issued within two days “for necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care or expenses not otherwise covered,” said the report.

Most veterans who needed emergency aid were unmarried males under 50 years old. According to case files, 59 percent were homeless or had “underlying addiction or mental health issues.”