New Brunswick·NewThousands of former service women and men across the country need help finding housing and jobs, and accessing support services like addictions treatment and mental health counselling. Fredericton Homeless Shelters has a community navigator to help unhoused veterans find the support they needMark Leger · CBC News · Posted: Nov 11, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 30 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The Andy Carswell Building in Ottawa provides housing and access to support services for homeless veterans. (Submitted by Veterans’ House Canada)Earlier this year, the staff at Veterans’ House Canada in Ottawa learned about a man, believed to be a veteran, who was living in a car. They located him, verified his service record and quickly found him a place to live.“We were able to get him moved, get his things out of the storage facility, and within a week he had a place to stay,” said John Atoyebi, the organization’s communications and marketing manager. “He’s safe and secure and he doesn’t need to look over his shoulder.”In Fredericton, Emmanuel Okafor is working to provide similar support to New Brunswick’s veterans. Right now, he’s working with a homeless veteran who submitted an application for benefits in 2021, but it was never processed because he didn’t upload his identification the right way. Okafor helped him get his application back on track.“We are here on the ground level to hold them by the hands and navigate them through the process and ensure things are being done right,” said Okafor, the veteran community navigator with Fredericton Homeless Shelters.Emmanuel Okafor, the veteran community navigator with Fredericton Homeless Shelters, helps former service women and men access services and housing. (Submitted by Fredericton Homeless Shelters)National organizations like Veterans’ House Canada and local organizations like Fredericton Homeless Shelters provide support for around 3,000 former service members who are homeless or precariously housed across the country. Using a “housing first” approach, organizations help them find a place to live and then support them in a number of ways, from securing them access to mental health and addictions services to helping them reconnect with family or find a new career.Across the country, Veterans’ House Canada is building supportive housing, with one building under construction in Edmonton and one already already open in Ottawa, where the man who was living in a car is now housed and taking part in the available support programming, says Atoyebi.John Atoyebi, the communications and marketing manager with Veterans’ House Canada, says the organization helps homeless veterans reconnect with family, if possible. (Submitted by Veterans’ House Canada)Atoyebi says it’s important to allow the veterans to progress at their own pace.“They’re not on the clock, so they can breathe easy,” Atoyebi said. “They can take their time, reconnect with family if there are any family members around, and then decide on their own terms how they want to live.”As yet, Veterans’ House Canada has no supportive housing complexes in Atlantic Canada, but the organization is looking at building one soon in Halifax, said operations manager Stéphane Guy.“It’s early stages, we need to find a location first,” Guy said. “Once the location is found, we go from there with the plans to build.”Stéphane Guy, a veteran and operations manager with Veterans’ House Canada, says many former service members struggle with building a new life after leaving the military. (Submitted by Veterans’ House Canada)While Veterans’ House Canada doesn’t yet have a facility in the region, that doesn’t mean homeless veterans don’t have support.Earlier this year, Fredericton Homelessness Shelters received funding for a co-ordinator to support veterans in the community.The organization says the number of unhoused veterans is on the rise in the city. In 2022, the organization was supporting 10 veterans.So far this year that number is up to 32 veterans.Okafor, who took on the co-ordinator role, says he’s there to help homeless veterans who don’t know about the support they can receive from the military after they retire.“Many of the veterans in the community are not aware of the resources and the benefits they’re entitled to, so my role is to be an intermediary, to connect them to Veterans Affairs Canada,” Okafor said.He said the veterans have assigned case managers at Veterans Affairs, but they’re not necessarily seeing some of the challenges that homeless or precariously housed retired service members face.Many veterans struggle when they leave militaryGuy, a veteran himself, said many ex-service people struggle when they leave the military and have to adjust to life as a civilian.“It is a drastic [change],” Guy said. “There are adaptations that are required and if someone is already afflicted by other issues, that could be something that adds to the stress for that person…a minority will fall into homelessness.”Okafor has met one-on-one with many homeless veterans in Fredericton and heard their stories about serving the country in wars overseas. He said they’ve sacrificed a lot and some have ended up homeless because of what they went through.“The government, any establishment, any organization that has the ability to better their situation, I recommend and they get all the support they deserve.”ABOUT THE AUTHORMark Leger is a reporter and producer based in Saint John. Send him story ideas to: mark.leger@cbc.caWith files from Information Morning Saint John and Viola Pruss
Local and national groups help house, support 3,000 homeless veterans
