Vancouver awards $800K in grants to Atira as troubled housing non-profit touts ‘reset’
Global News
The city froze all funding to Atira in May, in the wake of a damning audit that found a conflict of interest between its former CEO and her husband who headed BC Housing.
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 principle 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.