Tensions between the City of Vancouver and its biggest non-profit housing provider appear to be thawing.
In May, the city froze all funding to the Atira Women’s Resources Society, in the wake of a damning audit that found a conflict of interest between its former CEO and her husband, who headed BC Housing.
On Wednesday, Vancouver city council unanimously voted to approve nearly $800,000 in grants as the housing operator works to build back public trust.
On Tuesday, Atira released a “100 day” update on its efforts to “reset” and renew the organization, including the creation of a new code of conduct and a whistleblowers’ line.
“We have really realized that we have to regain trust, so to that end, we have been enabling transparency and partnership. These are the principal values we are living by,” said Atira’s interim CEO Catherine Roome in a Wednesday interview.
“That means instilling a code of conduct, that means doing our own governance review which we will make public — it’s almost complete — doing a complete review internally of our own operational procedures, even while the government is doing their own review.”
Atira’s former management had faced employee allegations of harassment and unsafe working conditions.
Under Roome, the non-profit now says it wants to foster a “speak-up culture.” She pledged workers would get improved training and said Atira has opted out of its operating agreement with the B.C. government at the Patricia Hotel, which a risk review flagged as too dangerous for staff.
“One of the things that Atira has done is really made an emphasis on employee health, safety and security,” she said.
“We know in the Downtown Eastside with the poisoned drug supply and the amount of housing issues, but also with the gang violence, the level of security has deteriorated significantly, and our employees are working in buildings that have been continuously lived in for 100 to 110 years.”
Despite promises from Atira’s new executive, workers say they want more.
In May, more than 500 workers at 35 Atira facilities unionized and joined the BC General Employees Union (BCGEU), citing the need to address safety, staffing shortages, and living and working conditions.
“We haven’t seen the tangible change we need to see, and the reason for that is because we don’t have a collective agreement in place,” BCGEU treasurer Paul Finch told Global News.
“We’re still not seeing the training for the new and casual hires, we’re still not seeing the overdose prevention training — but the most important and fundamental aspect of what we need to see at Atira and from Atira’s management is a solid and firm commitment of moving into the Community Health Bargaining Association with our (supportive housing sector) peers.”
The May forensic audit into BC Housing highlighted a conflict of interest between its own former CEO, Shane Ramsay, and former Atira CEO Janice Abbott, to whom he was married.
Abbott resigned in the aftermath of the audit, but Ramsay had resigned the previous fall, stating that he no longer had “confidence” he could solve the Crown corporation’s “complex problems.”
The Ernst and Young report found that while no individual benefitted materially from the relationships during their overlapping time leading the organizations, Atira was awarded contracts without a competitive process, received a substantial increase in funding, and got at least $3 million in COVID-19 funds without appropriate internal BC Housing approval.
Atira also took actions contrary to its operation agreements, the audit found, including using $2 million in restricted, repayable funds to help fund a property purchase. The provider bypassed BC Housing’s standard approval channels and approached senior members of the Crown corporation directly for funding and other requests multiple times, it added.
Roome, who will say on as interim CEO until November as Atira works to recruit a new permanent head, maintained the organization has undergone a sea change since the audit.
“Atira has permanently shifted the way it’s going to show up in the community, that’s a commitment,” she said.
“Atira has worked really hard to up its level of governance, up its level of business appropriateness, bring in a code of conduct, and we are at a different stage now, we are absolutely at a different place.”
-With files from Elizabeth McSheffrey