Jason Duprau, art director of Legion Magazine, asked Janice Kun to create these haunting illustrations to accompany an article on homeless war veterans and how Canada is approaching the problem.
"Nobody knows the number of homeless veterans in Canada, and this is one of the reasons why: “Aside from struggling with issues of addiction and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a lot of them don’t want to be identified as veterans,” says Joanne Henderson, Legion service officer in Vancouver. Some don’t want their buddies to find out what’s happened to them. “They think back to their time in the services as the good times in their lives and they’re ashamed. They think they should be able to take care of themselves. They’re in hiding; they’re hiding from themselves.” ...
It’s not enough to ask ‘Are you a veteran?’ “We learned you have to ask ‘did you have any military service’ because many don’t feel like veterans—they think veterans are guys from World War Two.” "
excerpt from article by Sharon Adams.
One of the solutions that is proving very successful is Cockrell House in Colwood, B.C. Much more than just housing, it's a full program that expects residents to move out and into more permanent accommodations in two years - helping them develop the life skills they need to do that.
“It’s a hand up, not a hand out,” says Dave Sinclair, President of British Columbia/Yukon Command, which helped fund Cockrell House.