A transgendered woman who claims she was evicted from social housing due to discrimination has found a home at the Olympic Village but without the help of the government agency in charge of subsidized housing.
Pam Burge says BC Housing abandoned her after she was evicted from the home shed lived in for more than a decade last June. BC Housing steadfastly to the end, as far as Im concerned, completely refused to give me housing of any kind. No matter what I did, no matter who I went to, Burge said in an interview at her new apartment in low-income housing at the Olympic Village.
Surrounded by boxes and plastic-wrapped furniture, Burge recounted her months-long struggle to find alternative housing after she was evicted from the Wellspring, a building for the disabled and hard-to-house run by the 127 Society for Housing, a non-profit affiliated with the Anglican Church of Canada. The 66-year-old, who suffers from disabilities including post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia and depression, alleges the buildings property manager, Joanne Graham, disliked her because she is transsexual.
Burge has filed a formal complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal against Graham, the 127 Society and the Anglican Church of Canada Diocese of New Westminster, in which she alleges Graham and other staff at the society are transphobic and harassed her for more than a year by unlawfully entering her suite and making excessive demands before serving her with an eviction notice for unpaid rent last spring.
Reached by e-mail, Graham said she could not comment for this article with the complaint pending.
Burge disputed Grahams claim of outstanding rent in front of the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) last summer, however she claims the dispute resolution officer was biased against her, frequently referring to her as Mr. Burge. The dispute resolution officer upheld the eviction notice.
Facing homelessness, Burge said BC Housing point blank refused to give her housing. Advocates working on her behalf managed to find her emergency housing in the Downtown Eastside in a building run by the Vancouver Native Housing Society, where Burge did not meet criteria and had to conceal her presence.
Maryanne Boyle, one of the advocates, said shes never seen anything like the way BC Housing responded to Burges plea for help. For many, many months they were aware that there were serious problems [at the Wellspring] and eviction was imminent. We were just passed around, passed around, she said. After Burge was evicted, Boyle said matters only got worse.
According to Boyle, BC Housing representatives deactivated Burges file acting in response to claims made by Graham, the Wellsprings property manager, that she owed more than $800 in repair fees. But the matter had already been settled in front of the Residential Tenancy Branch, whose records show Burge was not ordered to pay any money to the 127 Society. In fact, the RTB awarded her $250 in damages for loss of quiet enjoyment.
Boyle says when she pointed this out to BC Housing and supplied other legal documentation in support of Burge, representatives threatened to strike Burge from the housing registry entirely. BC Housing ignored all these things, and these are all legal documents. They just took the word of Joanne Graham.
Fergus McCann, a spokesperson for BC Housing said it is the agencys policy not to intervene in disputes between tenants and the independent non-profit operators it frequently contracts to run social housing, rather that is the purview of the Residential Tenancy Branch.
In instances where tenants qualify for support, BC Housing provides subsidies to the non-profit societies but is not involved in the day to day operations of these buildings, he wrote in an e-mail. We are not in a position to comment on the allegations of advocates about dispute resolution hearings at the RTB.
McCann continued: BC Housing requires a reference from a previous landlord when assessing individuals for placement on the housing registry, including resolution of any debt issues.
Boyle contends BC Housings hands-off approach to non-profit societies leaves no recourse for tenants who have an acrimonious relationship with former landlords. They completely trust that these agencies are doing everything right, she said. It just becomes the tenants word against the society. Boyle added that in Burges case, BC Housing eventually acknowledged she did not owe money to the 127 Society, but still would not help her find housing.
Alan Hans, an outreach worker with Senior Services Society and another of Burges advocates said BC Housings arms-length role with non-profit operators creates serious deficiencies in its ability to identify those with the highest need for housing and to ensure operators are treating tenants fairly.
Theres a real disconnect between the [BC Housing] registry and the property management of the buildings, he said. As a result, advocates regularly circumvent BC Housings registry and deal directly with non-profits to find housing for the most pressing cases, as he did to find emergency housing for Burge at Vancouver Native Housing Society. This does happen when people are in crisis, you can try to get through to a provider and tell them the situation, he said.
Hans was also responsible for finding Burge her new accommodation at the Olympic Village through direct negotiation with its non-profit operator, COHO Management Services Society.
BC Housings McCann acknowledged it is not uncommon for housing providers to give priority to certain individuals, regardless of their standing on the BC Housing registry, the central database managed by BC Housing for use by non-profit and co-operative housing providers.
Some housing providers give additional consideration to applicants who are: homeless/fleeing domestic violence or abuse/have a serious health condition that is affected by their current housing, he wrote.
However Hans said BC Housings stance leaves him confused as to its actual role in matching those in need with available housing. Theres no real rhyme or reason on how to get in there, he said. Theres no real system that I can see on helping people in distress... people are looking to them for assistance and I think theyre in paralysis mode right now, it seems.
For her part, Pam Burge is delighted to be settling into what she hopes will be a permanent home at the Olympic Village, even if she got there in a roundabout way. Its like a magic wand got waved and here I am.
