[LINK] "At least 2,250 veterans are homeless: analysis"

[rfmcdonald]

MacLean's hosts Murray Brewster's The Canadian Press noting something that really doesn't surprise me, given what we know about the stresses on military people. The numbers are the only thing surprising me.

For what’s believed to be the first time, the federal government has estimated how many of Canada’s homeless are former soldiers — but the department that compiled the report warns the data is far from complete.

The March 2015 study by Employment and Social Development Canada estimates that 2,250 former soldiers use shelters on regular basis, about 2.7 per cent of the total homeless population that uses temporary lodging.

The information in the report, released to The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, comes from a database that tracks 60 emergency shelters across the country and added veterans as an identifiable category in 2014.

“It’s shocking in Canada that we would have any veteran who is homeless, but it is a sad reality,” Gen. Jonathan Vance, the country’s top military commander, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The report noted that the data still has some holes in it and does not capture the number of veterans who do not use shelters. The national findings contradict counts being done in individual cities, which analysts suggest means that “veterans are more likely to be found outside shelters.”

Researchers also found that veterans who end up homeless tend to be older than non-veterans in the same circumstances and that ex-soldiers are more prone to so-called episodic homelessness — meaning they are individuals with disabling conditions who’ve been on and off the street three or more times in one year.