Group walks Winnipeg streets searching for homeless veterans

They once fought for Canada, now they fight just to survive — that’s the message from a group of Winnipeggers who walk downtown streets looking for homeless veterans.

Volunteers with VETS Canada took part in their third annual tour of Winnipeg Saturday.

“I haven’t had a single time where I’ve gone into the Siloam Mission and not found a veteran. Unfortunately, we have quite a few of them around,” Sven Leppik, Manitoba field operations manager said.

“We have calls all the time. We are working with a few different clients right now and that’s fairly steady. I have a team of about eight volunteers in town and we’re all fairly busy with helping veterans out.”

Leppik said the group has been working in Manitoba since 2012 and has already helped around 85 veterans.

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In Winnipeg, there are about 1,400 people who are homeless. Siloam Mission’s CEO Jim Bell estimates up to five per cent of those people are veterans.

“I think we need to make a better effort to understand one-on-one what those issues are and then we can put the right measures in place to help men and women transition,” he said.

Bell was in Ottawa last week meeting with the Veteran Affairs Minister and others who work with homeless people to talk about ways they can better support the population.

“One of the initiatives that I think we can put in place, which I learned last week, is while men and women are in service, maybe that is the time to start talking about how they can transition back into society after they serve,” Bell said.

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On the walk, the group of about a dozen volunteers handed out flyers with information to help people who are homeless. The organization helps provide emergency services for veterans and connects them with other resources and support.

Paul Frigon was one of the volunteers, but he also serves in the Canadian Armed Forces in the Navy.

“The ultimate goal is to find somebody that needs some help and help them,” he said.

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“I just want to continue helping people who have put so much of their time sacrificing for everybody. If they need our help, then that’s something we should all be doing.”

VETS Canada had people walking the streets in 21 different cities across the country on Saturday.