In what some say is part of a move toward privatization, an Alberta non-profit organization is being accused of trampling the rights of the disabled community in that province.
Concerned advocates for people with disabilities say the Innovative Housing Society (IHS) has been using intimidation tactics and threats against tenants in some of its 15 housing complexes throughout Alberta—the aim being to drive them out so the buildings can be sold, some allege.
The latest affront is the sale of Monarch Place, a 65-unit apartment complex opened in Red Deer in 2005 to provide affordable housing.
It is feared that the $7.2 million sale, called a "betrayal" by Red Deer Mayor Morris Flewwelling, may result in the building being renovated and sold as condominiums, leaving some of the approximately 70 tenants with no place to live.
"We've got paraplegics in here who are in wheelchairs that aren't accessible to any other place in the city," says Jude Hipperson, a tenant at Monarch Place. "It's a whole lot of mental anguish, because they [IHS] won't tell anybody anything."
IHS CEO Dave Haut says the society has been working with the Housing Registry Service to find suitable housing for tenants in the event that they have to leave Monarch Place after the new owners take possession on July 1.
"We will do our best to make matches for them," says Haut, while acknowledging that the lack of wheelchair accessible apartments in Red Deer may result in some tenants having to move to Edmonton. Ex-IHS board member Alan Blanes says the $7.2 million sale was a "secret deal" brokered by the IHS board in which local investors who were prepared to keep the facility as an affordable housing project were not allowed to bid.
"No little clique of half a dozen people has the right to put $19 million worth of real estate into their own pocket and tell the disabled community of Alberta that from now on you have no say in this society. That is not ethical by any definition," says Blanes.
Haut insists the money will be invested in more affordable housing, not necessarily in Red Deer but elsewhere in the province.
Membership
At a meeting in March 2006, regular society members, which numbered around 60, had their membership dissolved by a "corrupt clique" of about six board members, says Blanes.
Since that meeting, members have had no say in the running of the society, and have not been able to hold a Special General Meeting, previously agreed to by Haut, to deal with the matter because of a refusal by the present board members to attend.
Haut says it was passed "by about 85 per cent" at a meeting "a few years ago that all memberships would cease to be in existence and new members could re-apply to the society." This was necessary to in order to "clean up" the membership list.
"The society's been around for 30 – 35 years. We weren't sure exactly who the membership list was," says Haut. "There's also some housekeeping issues." Haut says he hired an independent mediator who asked members to send him their complaints for review but "nothing happened."
"There is a handful of people that feel they are members but there is no basis for that membership whatsoever," says Haut. "I've asked them what it is they're after, what the basis of their complaint is. I've had a meeting with them and I haven't heard anything back."
Blanes says that in what he believes is a move to take control of the society and run it as a private business, Haut has filed a certificate at corporate registry stating that he is the principle of the society.
But he says changes filed at corporate registry have to be presented at a general meeting and approved by members, and because societies have a public mandate, the minutes of that meeting are supposed to be public record. But the IHS has not done this.
"This is not legal," says Blanes. "Haut has also refused to give the Calder Constituency the minutes from the March 20, 2006 meeting where he cancelled the whole non-board membership."
Deaths
NDP MLA Dave Eggan says that while IHS has been contracted by the government to supply housing for people with disabilities, the group "doesn't seem to have the enforceable standards necessary to ensure the needs of the individuals are being met."
"I have a facility in my own constituency that has had a lot of turmoil over these past few years, things such as changing peoples' designations, and using the threat of eviction to hold over people's heads to keep them quiet or to ensure that they don't cause trouble," says Eggan.
Eggan is referring to the Gravelle housing complex, where tenants claim continual intimidation and harassment by IHS. Conservative MP Peter Goldring says he has met with about 30 Gravelle residents who had a variety of complaints, at least a dozen of whom "had been threatened and had the regular care they were expecting arbitrarily cut in half."
Social worker Baldwin Reichwein says he attended a meeting in Edmonton last year at which "a number of people" complained of having been evicted from facilities managed by IHS. A polio victim and long-time PWD advocate, Dorothy Hippler, died last fall shortly after being told she had to move from the Bader Towers complex where she had lived since it was built in 1979.
"I have heard other folks referring to 10 or 12 people who have passed away in housing that was managed by the same society, I understand within the last 12 – 18 months," says Reichwein. "We're dealing with a high-risk population, but that strikes me as an exorbitant casualty rate."
While Haut says the allegations of the deaths are "completely false," Reichwein says this and other issues warrant an investigation into the affairs of the society. An audit of IHS requested by Eggan was refused, but the Auditor General checked the agency's financial statements which suggest that IHS is having financial problems.
"We could be seeing that manifested in some of the problems that they have delivering services and maybe why they sold that building in Red Deer," says Eggan.
Janice Schroeder, a spokesperson with the Alberta Seniors and Community Supports Department, says complaints about IHS have been lodged with the department and were reviewed at a meeting last Thursday. The next step will include looking at ways to address the complaints and options that are available under provincial legislation. The complainants will then receive a response.
Past Successes
When the society was initially formed in the early 1970s, there was no housing for people with disabilities on low income with families, who at that time mostly lived in nursing homes, says Erla Whetham, an ex-executive director of the society and a lifetime member.
Whetham and Blanes, also a lifetime member, were among those who laid the groundwork for the agency, then called the Handicapped Housing Society of Alberta. The society was intended to involve people with disabilities and give them quality of life and a sense of empowerment, says Whetham.
"We created an awareness of this particular type of housing and it was created around a membership which was a membership of the disabled for the disabled." Whetham says the group established all the core funding, renovated houses, created jobs and programs, and "established every bingo hall." The society not only built housing, but also lobbied for people to get out of nursing homes and into independent living situations.
The members requested an audit in 1996 because the nature of the society had changed, becoming "almost like a private corporation" with only four board members and one CEO, says Whetham. But the audit did not take place.
"I feel bad because many years of hard work went into creating the organization. You do all that work and then someone comes along and wants to make it their personal private power base. It's hard to accept that," she says.
In an effort to get proper membership meetings restored and get the "principle under which the society was once established re-established," says Whetham, all the members are in the process of launching a class action against the CEO and board of directors of IHS.
Whetham says she had not been involved with the society in recent years, but became drawn back in after attending a meeting in May where residents spoke of abuse, of being fearful, and of being threatened with eviction or actually evicted if they complained.
"I can only classify it as evil for someone to take advantage of people who are less able to represent themselves and put them in positions of fear and put them in positions where they're terrified if they speak; it's no longer a democracy."
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