Midweek podcast: Getting veterans off Canada's streets

The solutions to veteran homelessness have been clear for years, but an unclear focus has been the Achilles Heel for governments, says one advocate and former Canadian Armed Forces member.

"It's really been a lack of direction," Tim Richter, president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, told The House. 

In a rare show of unity on Parliament Hill, members of the Commons Veterans' Affairs Committee across all three major parties called on the federal government to get homeless veterans off the streets. 

Estimates are there are over 3,000 former Forces members without a home across Canada. 

"I have joked that often ending homelessness is like a high school dance," Richter said. 

"Everybody is sort of standing on one edge of the wall one side of the hall and no one takes a first step. And I think it's taken someone to make that first step to say you know let's let's put this motion forward let's set a goal of ending veteran homelessness let's make a plan." 

Motion 225 is being brought by the the chair of the veterans' affairs committee, Liberal MP Neil Ellis.

It will be debated for the first time next week in the House of Commons. The two opposition parties support it and believe the motion should be passed before the next election. 

The Trudeau Liberals faced calls to produce a concrete plan after their national housing strategy only made passing mention of veterans. 

In the strategy, it said "veteran homelessness is unacceptable," and that "one homeless veteran is one too many," but the rest was vague about precisely how they planned to help those individuals.

It's a problem that various governments have lacked direction to solve, and Richter says he feels a personal responsibility to ensure those people are helped. 

"When you join the Canadian Forces you become part of a family," he said.

"I left now 23 years ago, but you still feel connected to that family … and you still feel an obligation to other members of the family."