Charity that builds housing for homeless veterans struggles to find land for Toronto location

Résumé détaillé

Veterans are more than four times as likely to experience homelessness than other Canadians, according to federal data

Hundreds of homeless veterans in Toronto will be spending Remembrance Day on the streets while a charity devoted to housing them struggles to find land.

Veterans’ House Canada opened its first location on the site of Ottawa’s former Canadian Forces Base Rockcliffe in 2021. Alan Mulawyshyn, the charity’s executive director and a former brigadier-general in the Canadian Armed Forces, said Toronto was the obvious place to go for a second location in 2022. It’s estimated there are approximately 500 homeless vets in the city, which also has the country’s largest unhoused population.

“We’ve talked to the city, talked to the province, talked to the feds, talked to private developers, talked to legions, trying to figure out if we can just get that place to plant a flag. But nothing has come up. Nobody has come up with anything,” Mr. Mulawyshyn said in an interview.

“Everyone is supportive of the idea, they’ve been quite supportive, but at the end of the day we haven’t been able to get that land secured.”

While the Toronto plan has spent years in limbo, Veterans’ House has managed to secure land in Edmonton and build a $16-million location in the Alberta capital over a period of about 18 months. It opened its doors on Monday. The facility, essentially a copy of the Ottawa location, consists of 40 studio apartments with amenities that include a community garden, a dog park, a gym and a library.

Veterans’ House was incorporated in 2020 and is geared toward long-term solutions. It also offers residents addiction and mental health therapy, as well as on-site employment programs.

“We are negotiating with the City of Halifax for an acre of land in downtown Halifax right now, so Halifax may get ahead of Toronto as well,” Mr. Mulawyshyn said.

Toronto city councillor Josh Matlow is among those trying to help Veterans’ House find a home in Canada’s largest city. In late 2025, he advanced a motion that was unanimously approved by council, directing the deputy city manager to help identify a…

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