The man who led B.C.’s housing agency for 22 years is stepping down, saying several recent incidents of violence against the homeless and an increasingly threatening environment for policymakers have left him questioning whether he can continue to deliver solutions. In a lengthy resignation statement, Shayne Ramsay said the work of providing housing to those who need it most is under threat because “small but vocal groups of people are increasingly angry and increasingly volatile”. The career bureaucrat who was appointed to the role of CEO of BC Housing in 2000 under the then NDP government said he was discouraged after seeing many incidents where homeless people were attacked or abused by people they didn’t want to live near. “While one community faces the almost certain prospect of poverty, ill health, violence and early death, others are now reluctant to offer a welcoming space, a space that could save lives,” said Mr Ramsay, the who has lived Downtown. Eastside himself for 12 years. He also said he was upset about a recent incident in which police shot a man at a homeless encampment in Vancouver. “I no longer have confidence that I can solve the complex problems we face at BC Housing.” His resignation, which takes effect Sept. 6, came just more than a month after a provincial government review outlined several problems at the agency, including a lack of criteria or documentation for why certain not-for-profits in certain programs are awarded contracts. Mr Ramsay was confronted last week by a group of angry Kitsilano residents over his presentation to the city council about a social housing project in the area. They were angry with him for calling out NIMBYs and misinformation as he asked the city council to approve the project. (It was finally approved, with conditions, by a vote of 8-3.) Vancouver council approves controversial Kitsilano social housing project Homeless community struggles to process shooting in Langley, BC In his statement, Mr Ramsey referred to the standoff as one of the recent troubling events that tipped the scales for him. “City Security has since advised that after reviewing the video, they believe the swarm and threatening punch amounted to an assault,” he wrote. “This time it was angry words and a punch, next time it might be worse.” Mr Ramsay said in his statement that he was watching with increasing alarm violence against homeless people. He said “something changed” for him in May as he watched police converge on a Downtown Eastside park where a man was found fatally stabbed, an incident that happened minutes after Mr. Ramsay had left the area while walking his dog of. Last week, he noted, homeless and formerly homeless people died during a six-hour killing spree in suburban Langley, BC. “These incidents are not isolated, nor are they the only incidents that have kept me up at night,” Mr Ramsay wrote. However, his resignation came as a surprise to some and drew praise for his work from former Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation CEO Evan Siddall, many in BC’s not-for-profit housing sector, BC Housing’s occasional resident and current and former politicians. “His impact cannot be overstated and I want to thank him for his tireless support,” said Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, who said thousands of people in BC had been provided with safe homes because of Mr. Ramsay. Mr Ramsay’s impending departure has also raised concerns about where the agency will now go. “Shayne has become the most accomplished housing CEO in the country,” said Thom Armstrong, CEO of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC for nearly the same period as Mr. Ramsay. “He has done more in terms of housing outcomes than anyone else. I always thought of him as a housing activist in bureaucratic clothing. This is truly an important day – this will change the fact of how homes are built in BC. Mr. Armstrong said he is now concerned the province will put someone in charge of the agency who is only interested in budget efficiency. “And if the place is going to be run by accountants, they have no chance of achieving their results.” Others welcomed the news, saying Mr Ramsay and his agency had trampled on neighbors who raised legitimate concerns about social housing being built near them. BC Housing has come under public scrutiny recently as the NDP government embarked on an aggressive mission to build massive amounts of new affordable housing and address the visible homelessness in many communities. This has led to disputes between the province and local residents in many communities, from Grand Forks, Penticton and Maple Ridge to, more recently, the upscale Kitsilano neighborhood in Vancouver. Also, some NDP politicians and government bureaucrats were concerned about how BC Housing was managing a huge expansion in its mandate and budget, which jumped from $785 million in 2017-18 to $2.247 billion for 2022-23. A provincial review by accounting firm Ernst & Young found a number of problems at the agency, some as trivial as inadequate IT systems, others more serious, involving contracts signed with various non-profit housing groups where there was no documentation about the how and why decisions were made. Shortly after that review was made public, then-Housing Minister David Eby announced that he was replacing the entire board at BC Housing. The replacements were largely former deputy ministers and bureaucrats with financial expertise, compared to the previous board appointed by the NDP’s Selina Robinson, who had more of a background in housing advocacy. The agency has seen several resignations of senior executives over the past two years, some frustrated by increased scrutiny of their work by the Treasury Board, which has made it harder to make property purchases. Others were frustrated by internal tensions. Mr Armstrong acknowledged that Mr Ramsey had “really driven an agenda of fairness and inclusion” and this had made some people in the service uncomfortable. After the NDP formed government in 2017, BC Housing was given the mandate to build 29,000 of the 114,000 “affordable” homes over the next decade promised in the campaign. In recent years, Mr. Ramsay’s team has handed out contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. BC Housing also went on an aggressive campaign during the pandemic to buy up hotels and motels to house the homeless — something that drew backlash from some communities. We have a weekly Western Canada newsletter written by our BC and Alberta bureau chiefs, providing a comprehensive package of the news you need to know about the region and its position on the issues facing Canada. Sign up today.
