Ottawa provides funding for veterans housing program
Calgary police Det. John Langford was on bike patrol five years ago when he noticed a disturbing number of former military personnel living on city streets.
The officer has a special attachment to their difficulties. He served seven years in the military, including stints in U.N. peacekeeping tours in Cyprus and the former Yugoslavia.
“Being an ex-military member, that really bothered me,” said Langford, who is home in Calgary from a break training Afghan police in Kabul.
The detective estimates up to 40 homeless vets are living on city streets, including 28 who’ve now been allocated some type of affordable housing.
His push to help the veterans — along with the work of others around the city and province — paid off Tuesday, as Ottawa pledged money to a specialized pilot program to assist and house once-homeless military personnel in Calgary, Victoria, London and Toronto.
In Calgary, almost $540,000 in federal funding will be used to pay for maintenance in an apartment building for veterans, along with counselling and addiction-treatment services.
Earlier this year, 15 veterans were moved into an apartment building purchased by the Calgary Homeless Founda-
Being an ex-military member, that really bothered me
DET. JOHN LANGFORD ON HOMELESSNESS AMONG VETERANS
tion specifically to provide affordable shelter to former members of the military.
A provincial grant provided the down payment for the bricks and mortar, but new federal money will go to help the inhabitants move forward.
One of the tenants, Patrick Cluff, said it’s great to live among understanding peers — but each veteran is also afforded privacy with his own small apartment unit.
“I love it. It’s home,” said the 61-year-old Cluff, a veteran who had previously been living at Inn From the Cold. “You can converse with others if you want ... if you don’t want to be disturbed, you lock your door.”
Federal Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley and Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney made the announcement in Calgary on Tuesday. In total, the federal government will put $1.9 million toward the pilot project, which will also help housing programs for veterans in the three other centres.
Finley said the pilot project, based on a United Kingdom program, is expensive and will only be expanded to other centres if it’s deemed successful.
“This is something new in Canada, with this wraparound service of support for veter- ans,” she said. “We’re going to try it in four places and, over a period of two years, we want to evaluate the results.”