David Carrigg
Province
Protesters march yesterday along East Hastings Street, above left, to raise awareness of homelessness and poverty. Photograph by : Jason Payne, The Province
Jill Chettier,Above, an Anti-Poverty Committee organizer and Downtown Eastside Residents Association board member, addresses protesters outside an intended squat at 301 E. Hastings St. Police arrest one of six protesters taken into custody.
B.C. Housing is investigating claims that an anti-government protest group has taken control of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association and unfairly secured social housing for its members.
Sam Rainboth of B.C. Housing said the probe was prompted by allegations from two residents of DERA housing that Anti Poverty Committee members who work for DERA were given DERA-subsidized housing intended for the most desperate residents of the Downtown Eastside.
“We’ve seen the allegations and arranged a meeting with DERA,” Rainboth said.
The accusation of preferential treatment for APC members is one of several troubling claims made by the two residents.
Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt said the B.C. Housing “audit” of DERA would examine the housing wait list and whether APC members earning decent incomes had been unfairly awarded social housing
“I know there are a lot of people on social-housing wait lists and it would be ironic if APC members earning an income had zipped to the top of the list,” Mayencourt said.
People with APC links have eight seats on the 13-member board of provincially funded DERA. APC is mounting an escalating protest campaign against the provincial government, demanding that more money be spent on social housing.
The DERA residents who prompted the inquiry, Jamie Lee Hamilton and Danny Kostyshin, said APC and affiliates such as the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users moved in on DERA in 2004, when APC organizer Jill Chettier became treasurer of DERA and its housing society.
Chettier works for a federally funded program in the Downtown Eastside while her partner, APC organizer David Cunningham, works for DERA.
The couple live in government-subsidized DERA housing.
Cunningham’s dad, Russ, also works for DERA and lives in subsidized DERA housing.
APC activist Aaron Muirhead, who manages DERA’s Pendera housing complex, lives in DERA housing. People with APC links who are now on the DERA and DERA Housing Society board — one board runs both groups — include Chettier, Chris Slater, Lynn Gemeroy, Anna Hunter, Rob Morgan, Peter Golletz and Alex Burnip.
Cunningham, Chettier and DERA executive director and APC activist Kim Kerr were among 30 protesters who erected a makeshift structure at the corner of Gore and Hastings streets yesterday.
Chettier refused to answer questions about links between the APC and DERA or her role on the DERA board. Kerr, who has ignored several requests for interviews from The Province, refused to comment on the B.C. Housing investigation.
Hamilton and Kostyshin said the APC members who have bypassed housing waiting lists are employed and do not have medical problems.
“These people have bypassed the regular waiting list for DERA housing, which is for those in dire medical need or living in financial hardship,” said Hamilton.
“DERA has now gone from advocating for residents to being a group that plans all its actions around squats and illegal action. They [APC] have complete control of DERA.”
According to financial information filed with the Canada Revenue Agency, the DERA Housing Society had housing assets of almost $18 million in 2005, with about $3 million a year coming from the provincial government. DERA itself has not yet filed its 2005 financial report.
The housing society, in its 2005 report, answered no to the question “did the charity carry out political activities or provide assistance to another organization to carry out political activities.”
Canada Revenue rules state “registered charities must not support or oppose political parties or candidates for public office.”
DERA Housing controls 600 units of social housing in three buildings. Another DERA-controlled building, Marie Gomez, does not receive B.C. Housing funding. It was recently dubbed a “house of horrors” by police after allegations that sex workers were tortured in the building over drug debts.
Sister Elizabeth Kelliher, the sole long-term DERA director, said she has no problem with DERA’s links to the APC, as long as APC members do not engage in violence.
“Who else down there is doing anything about homelessness?” said Kelliher. “They are the only ones making noise in the city right now.”
© The Vancouver Province 2006
