Talk about a dumpster fire.
The largest non-profit housing society in B.C. has had provincial funding suspended following the release of a damning Ernst and Young forensic audit of the operations of the $2 billion BC Housing Crown corporation.
Atira Women’s Resources Society will no longer receive provincial support for its non-profit housing assets. Atira has received more than $120 million in BC Housing funding since 2018 to finance non-market housing programs and social services.
According to B.C. Premier David Eby, Atira received preferential treatment from the CEO of BC Housing, Shane Ramsay, who is married to the CEO of Atira, Janice Abbott.
Ramsay was “actively breaking the conflict of interest agreement” that he was not to be involved in decisions related to Atira Women’s Resource Society, Eby said at a May 8 press conference.
This included deleted emails, changing dates on correspondence and pushing staff to approve Atira projects over other housing providers, the Premier said.
Atira was also managing the Winters Hotel, which was destroyed by fire a year ago and later found to have non-operating fire alarms and other safety concerns.
The Ernst and Young report, called Financial Systems and Operational Review of BC Housing, was dated May 10, but kept secret until June 30. The report said BC Housing suffers a siloed approach to delivery, has made limited investments in infrastructure and resources, and its project administration is largely undocumented and does not include a risk-based approach.
Ernst and Young then did a second forensic audit, at the request of Eby.
None of the other housing societies involved with non-profit housing had the specific attention of Ernst and Young, though some have also raised eyebrows.
In B.C., the province’s 2023 budget pledged $4.3 billion for subsidized housing, equal to the entire provincial deficit. This is addition to $428 million aimed at those “currently homeless or unstably housed” in the 2022 provincial budget.
A cursory investigation by Western Investor finds that, in 2022, just four Vancouver housing groups set up to house and support the most vulnerable – Atira Women’s Resource Society, Lookout Housing Society, PHS Community Services Society and RainCity Housing and Support Society – took in a combined $204 million from government and, all told, paid their own staff more than $151 million in wages and salaries.
A fifth, Pacific Community Resource Society, which is completing a government-funded Surrey housing-for-homeless project, took in $30.2 million in total government funds last year, paid out $18.6 million in wages and salaries and logged nearly $30,000 per month in travel and car expenses, according to its filings with the Canada Revenue Agency.
While Ramsay was CEO of BC Housing, before retiring last year following the original audit, Atira received $35 million more in provincial funds than any other housing society. This included the purchase of an old single-room-occupancy building and beer parlour in Vancouver’s downtown eastside for $6 million over its assessed value.
“The investigation into BC Housing continues,” said Eby, who has Minister of Housing until he stepped down to run as premier. Eby assured tenants of current Atira housing projects that they will continue to receive provincial funding and support.
