Questions about B.C. Housing's relationship with Atira go back more than a decade

On Tuesday in B.C.'s Legislature, the opposition B.C. United Party spent their entire time asking the government about the relationship between B.C. Housing and Atira Women's Resource Society.

More specifically, they asked why the province had continued to allow the former to increase funding to the latter in spite of serious issues. 

"Why was he more than increasing the funding by over 300 percent [while] at the same time, he was sitting on reports that showed the damning amount of misuse of public funds?" said Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon. 

It's true the B.C. NDP increased funding in spite of concerns, chief among them the fact that the CEOs of B.C. Housing, Shayne Ramsay, and Atira, Janice Abbott, were married to each other. 

At the same time, it's also true that when B.C. United were called the B.C. Liberals, they let the same thing happen.

"Atira has received a lot of tax dollars from B.C. Housing. An estimated 20 million and counting since 2007," said CBC News reporter Eric Rankin in a story on Sept. 10, 2012.

"Some Downtown Eastside activists believe B.C Housing can't be objective when giving money to Atira, hinting that Abbott or Ramsay should step down." 

CBC News had done a series of stories on the concerns about Atira and B.C. Housing, looking into the relationship between Abbott and Ramsay, and concerns about the condition of the buildings Atira was responsible for.

However, the minister responsible for housing at the time expressed his confidence in the arrangement.

"I have no indication whatsoever at any time that has not been handled properly," said Rich Coleman. 

"People are allowed to have relationships," he said to The Vancouver Sun. 

Eventually, the stories came to an end.

But Atira's funding continued to grow: from $2 million from B.C. Housing in 2008, to $18 million when the B.C. NDP took office in 2017 — and then increasing all the way to $74 million last fiscal year. 

Part of the reason for Atira's increase in funding was the same as many non-profit housing organizations': the B.C. NDP put much more money generally into affordable housing, particularly after the pandemic left thousands of people in more precarious living situations.