There has been a wholesale board and senior management change at the Prince George Metis Housing Society, and B.C. Housing has undertaken an internal review of the housing organization, The Citizen has learned.
The review was undertaken after the Crown agency received complaints about the housing society's operations, although B.C. Housing would not provide any details of the review while it's underway. The society manages 167 subsidized housing units in the city.
The Citizen has learned that former executive director, Ken Browning, who held the position for more than two decades, is gone.
B.C. Housing - which would only respond to Citizen questions by e-mail and could not provide anyone to speak to The Citizen directly - says Browning resigned.
He has been replaced by B.C. Housing staffer Jody Puff, who was named as interim executive director in early November, according to documents obtained by The Citizen.
The five-member board is also gone, replaced by an "interim" five-person board, which includes Lheidli T'enneh chief Dominic Frederick and Prince George Native Friendship Centre executive director Barb Ward-Burkitt.
B.C. Housing also says the former board members resigned, although former directors say they were called on to resign by B.C. Housing.
Theresa Loyer, who had been a board member for about four years, said she was asked to meet with B.C. Housing representatives and their lawyer in Prince George where she was told she would have to resign because she was related to Browning. Loyer is a second cousin of Browning's.
Prior to Browning's resignation and that of the board's, B.C. Housing's auditors examined the books at the P.G. Metis Housing offices, said Loyer.
However, Loyer said she never saw anything that came across the board's table that would have led her to believe there were any wrongdoing going on at the housing society. However, in retrospect, Loyer said she now believes that OK'ing advances to Browning on his pay cheques was not proper. It was the only item she pointed to that she believed was a concern.
Loyer does not believe that Browning resigned voluntarily. "Why would you walk away with nothing?" quizzed Loyer, saying Browning did not receive any severance.
Former board member Frank Frederick - who was with the society for more than a decade and recently was president - says more pointedly that board members were forced to resign. He said B.C. Housing officials, including northern regional director Anne Howard, came in and said it would be beneficial for board members to resign. "She just came in and took over, and got rid of all of us. Fired a few. That was it, that's all I found out. She didn't even give me an explanation or nothing," said Frederick.
He also says he does not know what is the subject of B.C. Housing's internal review.
Frederick contends that Browning retired, and said he believes that Browning is owed a severance which he did not get.
Frederick also says he saw nothing that was inappropriate while he was a board member for the past decade. "Everything was by the books. Everything was up front. All the board members - we had to approve everything," he said.
Mike Cunningham, a long-time housing society board member, declined to comment on the changes.
Other former board members in 2009 were Charlene Taylor and Bev Tourand, according to an annual report filed with B.C.'s registry of companies and societies.
The Citizen left several messages for Browning in Alberta, where he now lives, but he could not be reached for comment.
Murline Browning, Ken's former wife who also played a role in the Prince George Metis Housing Housing Society, declined to comment on the changes. "B.C. Housing has done their thing, and that's it. I was out of there a couple of years ago - tired of carrying a cross for my people," said Murline.
According to housing society documents, Murline was a special advisor in 2007.
The Prince George Metis Housing Society was established in 1984 and provides subsidized housing to Metis and aboriginal people. Originally it was funded through the federal government, but was turned over to the province in 2007 as part of a devolution agreement. In the 1990s, the society had an operating budget of $2.5 million.
The society had been subject to a number of tenant disputes over the years, where residents said they were being unfairly ejected from the subsidized housing. Normally, the residents were unable to fight the evictions, because they had signed fixed-term agreements in which they agreed to vacate homes unless the agreement was renewed.
One of those that had launched a recent complaint to B.C. Housing was Ruby Baptiste, who took action after her 66-year-old mother was going to be evicted from a housing society home.
Baptiste recounted that her mother was out in her front yard during Thanksgiving 2008 helping rake leaves with a friend, a man that sometimes helped her with odd jobs. Browning was driving by and spotted the pair, and according to Baptiste, Browning started yelling and swearing at the pair. Baptiste says Browning told the man to get "the hell off his fucking" property, and called Baptiste's mother a "crazy bitch." (Former board members and other sources agree that Browning often used profanity during housing society business).
Later, Browning complained about the ruts the 66-year-old woman's wheelchair was making in the lawn, saying her lease would not be renewed. Then Baptiste's mother received notice her lease agreement was not being renewed. "He was not acting the way a landlord should - finding a way to resolve the problem," said Baptiste.
Since then, B.C. Housing has rescinded the eviction notice and told Baptiste's mother she can remain in the unit on the basis of an ongoing month-to-month rental agreement.
Baptiste, however, remains skeptical of the recent society changes, saying it is important that an annual general meeting be held with the new board.
New board members that were contacted by The Citizen were reluctant to talk about what had precipitated the changes at the housing society. "We want to make things better," said Dominic Frederick, who deferred any questions to B.C. Housing.
New board member Annette Maurice also deferred questions to B.C. Housing.
Ward-Burkitt also deferred questions about the change to B.C. Housing, and stressed the new board was there in an "interim" position.
Ward-Burkitt said the society would be having an annual general meeting, as well as examining the society's membership and figuring out how new members might be added.
She did not know how quickly that would happen, again deferring the question to B.C. Housing.
"We're just gathering information at this point so we can make the best decisions. That's all we're interested in," she said.
Ward-Burkitt said she expected that the housing society would continue to provide subsidized housing. "I personally wouldn't want to be part of a process that displaces people. I just couldn't in all good conscious do that," she said.
ghoekstra@pgcitizen.ca
