A Downtown Eastside non-profit society whose books are under review by the provincial government for irregularities in spending practices was caught off guard Tuesday by a media report suggesting the organization is headed for receivership.
Mark Townsend, co-executive director of the PHS Community Services Society, said he has since sent a letter to Housing Minister Rich Coleman to clarify the comments Coleman made in an article published on The Tyee website.
The article cited anonymous sources saying the PHS could be put into receivership as early as Wednesday. Coleman responded that “I don’t think it will come as quickly as that” but promised more information in a week to 10 days.
The Courier requested an interview with Coleman but had not received a call before this story was posted. Townsend had also not received a response from Coleman when interviewed by the Courier Tuesday.
Townsend said his society had no indication from B.C. Housing, which is the housing branch of the provincial government, that it was considering receivership.
Townsend said the PHS last met in late January with B.C. Housing and the accounting firm Deloitte to discuss the ongoing review of the society’s books.
“Our sincere, 100 per cent honest feeling is that was going well,” said Townsend, noting the PHS hasn’t got any creditors and the society is paying its bills. “To be clear, I don’t know exactly what [Coleman] said, we have no indication from B.C. Housing that he was going to be saying such a thing and we’re going to seek some clarification from him directly.”
B.C. Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay announced in November 2013 that it discovered irregularities in spending practices of the PHS, which helps operate the Insite supervised drug injection site and manages several Downtown Eastside hotels.
At the time, Ramsay said the PHS had to improve financial reporting, corporate governance, compliance with agreements and expense management. Ramsay did not release any more specifics about the review or reveal how much money was in question.
The PHS has 16 sites that house 1,200 tenants and employs more than 500 people. The society, which is headed by Townsend and his wife Liz Evans, also runs a bank, a dental clinic and a café.
On Thursday, the PHS held a press conference to announce it had opened at “telemedicine clinic” at its drug resource centre on Cordova Street that will connect its clients with doctors, via the Internet.
“Patients will have a highly trained tele-technician, with a nursing background, with them during the video session with the physician,” said a release fro the PHS, which also operates an alcohol-making co-op at the resource centre.
The clinic will offer access to doctors, various specialists, lab work, wound care, medication administration and counseling, vaccinations, HIV testing, pregnancy testing, education and therapy under one roof, the release added.
Over the years, Coleman has praised the PHS for its work in the Downtown Eastside. B.C. Housing has given the society millions of dollars to operate it services, including government single-room-occupancy hotels such as the Pennsylvania, the Rainier, the Sunrise and the Washington.
The PHS became the first nonprofit to operate one of the government’s new 14 supportive housing buildings in Vancouver. The $21.5 million six-storey building on Station Street, near Main and Terminal opened in December 2010.
The review of the PHS comes four years after a B.C. Housing investigation led to the closure of the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA), a longtime advocacy organization that was originally led by the late Jim Green in the 1980s.
B.C. Housing filed a statement of claim in B.C. Supreme Court in March 2010 alleging DERA improperly used rent subsidy money provided by the provincial government to help pay for the association’s administrative costs.
The government eventually reached an out-of-court agreement with DERA, which had close ties to the Anti-Poverty Committee. The government alleged DERA failed to pay $500,000 in property taxes and rents from three housing complexes.
A court-appointed receiver took over DERA’s housing projects.
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