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In a lengthy personal statement, Shane Ramsay said “something changed” when he saw a killing on the beach near CRAB Park in May
Publication date:
Aug 02, 2022 • 32 minutes ago • 3 minutes read • 22 comments Shane Ramsey, CEO of BC Housing, has announced his retirement. Photo by BC Housing
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The CEO of BC Housing is retiring, saying he can no longer solve the myriad problems facing the organization and is concerned for his own safety.
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Affordable housing advocates said his statement was more abrupt than they expected and the next chief executive will face a large set of challenges.
In a statement, Shane Ramsay said “something changed” when he saw a killing on the beach near CRAB Park in May, then watched in horror as two people dealing with homelessness were killed last week.
Ramsey said the last straw was the mob last week after speaking to reporters about a public hearing on proposed social housing in the Kitsilano neighborhood, near the planned Arbutus subway stop.
He blamed a “small but vocal” group in British Columbia that has become “increasingly angry and increasingly volatile” in its opposition to social housing — while the homeless face a dire life on the streets for lack of proper shelter.
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“I no longer have confidence that I can solve the complex problems we face.”
Ramsey, who is 61 years old, has been with BC Housing for 26 years. His last day will be September 6.
BC Housing, the provincial agency that works to address homelessness and the affordability crisis through rental assistance, social housing and other programs, has been in the spotlight lately.
“We’ve all noticed that there’s a lot more debate about housing these days,” said Tom Armstrong, CEO of the British Columbia Co-operative Housing Federation.
Armstrong said the disagreements were happening at “a higher temperature than any of us can remember ever happening. And I think Shane has been on the front lines and has been the target of a lot of this because he’s in charge of the kind of corporation that has to solve the problem. Having a new person in that chair won’t change any of that. That will be the real challenge.”
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In May, the NDP government released an 85-page report by accounting firm Ernst & Young that examined BC Housing’s structure and processes as its budget more than doubled in the past five years. It also appointed a new chairman of the board and replaced five board members.
When he called for a review of BC Housing in 2021, then-Housing Minister David Ibby told Postmedia he was thinking about the failed Little Mountain project, in which the previous BC Liberal government gave developer Holborn Properties $211 million in interest-free loans to build market-value housing and social housing.
He said the previous board, which was tapped by the NDP government, was still using processes that may have been acceptable when its budget was $782 million in 2017-18 under the previous Liberal government.
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Last week, former Vancouver planner Cameron Gray sent Postmedia his assessment of the Ernst & Young report, claiming that “in short, (it) is not the devastating criticism that some make it out to be.”
He pointed out that the report did not discuss Little Mountain and noted that “it’s hard not to think that the review is the result of accountants hiring accountants to recommend more power to accountants.”
Jill Atkey, CEO of the Non-Profit Housing Association of British Columbia, said when there’s rapid growth in any organization, sometimes there’s a period where systems don’t keep up and the audit found that.
However, she cautioned that “sometimes the answer to that can be that we need someone to come in and be really almost like an accountant in approach and the fear is that you’ll lose some of that creativity and the ability to take advantage of opportunities .”
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Atkey said Ramsey has “flexibility and freedom” and she wouldn’t want a new leader to come in without those characteristics, “because we’re going through really fast changes in the housing sector. And that will require creativity.”
Acting Housing Minister Murray Rankin said BC Housing’s board will “immediately begin work to identify a new executive director to lead the organization into the future.”
Eby, who recently stepped down to run for BC NDP leader, said, “Shane is right, our province faces deep and complex challenges in housing affordability, and there’s still a lot of work to do.”
jlee-young@postmedia.com
jruttle@postmedia.com
With file by Katie De Rosa and Dan Fumano
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