B.C. Housing overdue for new leadership, says former premier

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Days after the resignation of B.C. Housing’s chief executive and weeks after the dismissal of its board of directors, there is little consensus about what the sweeping leadership changes mean for the provincial housing agency and its $2-billion annual budget.

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One of the fired directors says she worries that the board has been stripped of housing expertise.

“Nobody (on the new board) has any housing expertise at all,” said dismissed board member Penny Gurstein, the director of the Housing Research Collaborative at UBC, where she is professor emeritus. “It is really worrying me and I’m sure a lot of other people.”

But former premier Mike Harcourt said the new board has the needed “managerial and financial fire power” to tackle the complex housing file. 

Last week, Shayne Ramsay announced his retirement as CEO in a Twitter thread, stating he no longer has “confidence I can solve the complex problems facing us.”

B.C. Housing works with private and non-profit sectors and other government and community groups to provide housing, including subsidized housing, emergency shelter and rent assistance. And it licenses builders and undertakes housing research and education.

Ramsay’s resignation, effective Sept. 6, comes about a month after the provincial government rescinded the appointments of seven board members.

They were fired a week after the NDP government released an 85-page report by accounting firm Ernst and Young, which examined B.C. Housing since its budget more than doubled in the last five years.

The report made 44 recommendations for potential improvements to operations, including the need for clearer governance roles, structures and processes, better policy direction, and improved collaboration with government.

Allan Seckel, a lawyer, was appointed the new chair, and Jill Kot, Sheila Taylor, Mark Sieben, Russ Jones, Doug White and Clifford White were named as new board members. Among them are a former deputy auditor-general of B.C. and four former or current deputy ministers.

None worked in the housing field, but have mostly “accounting experience and government experience,” Gurstein said.

The old board reflected a broad expertise, including in housing, she said. Among the other six ex-members were a chartered accountant, a psychologist, an urban planner/professor, a youth advocate, a construction lawyer, and a developer.

“I see this as a signal that the government wants B.C. Housing to be under more scrutiny of the government,” said Gurstein. B.C. Housing “is supposed to be independent of government.”

The agency has a goal of building 114,000 affordable housing units over 10 years, and a new board makes sense, said Harcourt.

“I think the changes are good. You need the managerial and financial firepower that’s on the board,” he said. “I see it (board makeup) as very positive.”

He said the previous board was “heavy on producing non-profit housing, but it was light on managing a budget of $2 billion.”

Harcourt said he expected the board to search for a CEO who has housing experience in for-profit development, one possibly with social or affordable housing knowledge. Ramsay’s total compensation in 2020-21 was $394,000.

“Sometimes people decide they want to do something for society,” he said.

Former NDP MLA Shane Simpson, who was the minister of social development and poverty reduction when he retired from politics in 2020, said leadership changes may affect the way B.C. Housing deals with non-profit and co-op housing providers.

“Ramsay’s style, generally supported by the previous board, allowed significant innovation and flexibility. Maybe too flexible, not sure,” he said in a text after an interview. “The new board, should they choose a CEO that more closely reflects their style, will change that culture. Swinging too far in a more bureaucratic direction will have its challenges.”

“We wanted to address housing, not just homelessness, from the homeless to the middle-class housing,” said Gurstein. “That’s a pretty big mandate. We wanted to be creative and be inclusive. We were paying real attention to inclusivity. It just shocks me that we were dismissed in such an abrupt way.”

Simpson said he was “big fan” of Ramsay’s, but “bringing a new set of eyes to the executive is not a bad thing.”

He said B.C. Housing has to resolve the homeless crisis, but also provide affordable housing for those earning between $30,000 and $80,000 a year — the family with a $20-an-hour job and two children that needs a three-bedroom unit.

Vancouver Coun. Jean Swanson said B.C. Housing’s priority has to be to develop a “concrete plan to end homelessness,” including buying all the single-room occupancy hotels.

And she said B.C. needs vacancy control, that is, an end to the practice of landlords being able to raise rents when a tenant moves out, and a rent freeze, to improve affordability for those earning $50,000. The recommended 30-per-cent maximum of income for housing would mean those earners would pay $1,250 for rent.

“(Social) housing needs to be more dispersed (among other types of housing) to help people stabilize,” said long-time Downtown Eastside worker Judy McGuire. “There are different models that work well, like the smaller model, which tends to provide better support” to those in need.

slazaruk@postmedia.com

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