Addressing Veteran Homelessness in Canada Through Coordinated Housing Solutions
Many Canadians believe that once veterans return home, the system takes care of them. It’s an understandable assumption but a flawed one.
“The reality is far more complex,” says Brad Field, president and CEO of Homes For Heroes. Veterans often transition to civilian life carrying physical injuries, mental health challenges such as PTSD, and the difficulty of translating military experience into civilian employment. When these realities collide with delayed benefits, rising rents, low vacancy rates and limited supportive housing, housing instability can follow quickly, explains Field.
Today, an estimated 10,000 veterans across Canada are unhoused. “This is a crisis,” Field notes, “and Homes For Heroes was created to address it.”
Why Veteran Homelessness Persists After Service
Responding to veteran homelessness, however, requires more than isolated programs—it requires a housing system capable of moving effective affordability projects to market faster. That understanding is central to the partnership between Homes For Heroes and Partners for Affordable Housing (Partners).
Partners works to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing by facilitating the stacking of public, private and philanthropic investments. Through sector coordination and its online tool, Front Door, Partners connects non-profit affordable housing project opportunities with aligned partners and capital—reducing friction and helping projects advance more efficiently.
Homes For Heroes is one of the organizations featured in Front Door, listing its London, Ontario Veteran’s Village (login required), which offers 25 affordable, fully furnished transitional homes for Canadian Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Homes For Heroes delivers a veteran-specific housing model that combines deeply affordable homes with wraparound supports addressing mental health, physical health, income stability and community reintegration. Their villages—currently operating in Calgary, Edmonton and Kingston, with new developments underway in Winnipeg and London—demonstrate that housing designed around veterans’ needs can produce meaningful, lasting outcomes.
“We deliver a proven solution,” Field says. “Deeply affordable housing paired with comprehensive supports that help veterans stabilize and reintegrate.”
Accelerating Veteran Housing Through Partnership and Front Door
Front Door is a collaborative online directory designed for public, private and philanthropic partners, offering visibility into affordable housing projects across Canada and enabling smarter, more coordinated investment.
“Front Door is designed to elevate the outstanding work of our partners and connect affordable housing providers with funders looking to drive real change,” says Amy Bolt, director of programs for Partners. “We know there’s a growing appetite to invest in community-powered housing solutions. Front Door makes it simple to translate that intention into action.”
Field sees this visibility as transformative. “Front Door has the potential to be a real game-changer for the sector,” he says. “By breaking down silos and making projects and solutions more visible, it supports better alignment, stronger partnerships and faster progress.”
For Home For Heroes, participation in Front Door helps amplify impact across Canada. “Partners for Affordable Housing strengthens connections across the housing sector and increases awareness of what is already working for veterans,” Field notes. “That kind of coordination is essential if we’re serious about ending veteran homelessness.”
The partnership reflects a key priority says Jolene Livingston, CEO and founder of Partners.
“A big focus for us is making mission-driven housing projects easier to discover, easier to support and quicker to bring to life. The need for affordable housing is obvious—what’s often missing is the alignment between the right information, the right funding, and the right partners.”
The partnership also demonstrates the power of systems-level thinking. “No single organization can solve the housing crisis alone,” Field emphasizes. “Collaboration is how we deliver more effective and humane housing solutions.”
Adds Field: “This partnership is about dignity, access and accountability. Veterans have served their country. Ensuring they have a safe, affordable place to call home is a shared responsibility—one that depends on strong projects and a connected housing system capable of bringing them to life.”
Learn More about Front Door
Front Door helps providers, public, private and philanthropic partners — P4— identify and support affordable housing projects ready to move forward.
Learn more about Front Door and how Partners for Affordable Housing is accelerating affordable housing delivery.