Did the Former CEO of BC Housing Siphon $Millions of Public Funds into a Private Lending Company?
Shayne Ramsay remains the CEO of HPC Housing Investment Corporation
Reader why is a Crown Corporation involved in a private real estate lending company? Do you ever wonder how we came to have a housing crisis in such a wealthy country? Don’t you ever think it goes beyond simple supply-demand economics? Do you ever think it goes beyond the Chinese boogeyman and the immigrant boogeyman? Do you wonder what motivates the insistence on prolonging the ongoing collective torment that we call the DTES and supportive housing? Do you ever wonder how supportive housing operated by entities with massive operating budgets turns out to be derelict and run down?
Remember the big forensic audit from a few years ago, involving BC housing and Atira Women’s Resource Society? Let’s go back in time and revisit the forensic audit in some detail.
Reader, we’ll figure this out in stepwise point form.
Shayne Ramsay was the CEO of BC Housing and his spouse Janice Abbot was the CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society, the largest non profit housing provider in BC.
Atira routinely bypassed administrative processes to receive preferential treatment from BC Housing.
BC Housing awarded Atira many contracts through a direct award procurement process. Ramsay personally involved himself in BC Housing business dealings that involved Atira. He made a point of trying to cover his tracks.
APMI, Atira Property Management Inc, for-profit arm of Atira Women’s Resource Society, generates money to fund Atira’s non profit housing activities — Atira “leverages APMI to make purchases.”
APMI has an affiliation with Community Impact Real Estate Society (CIRES) for property management services.
CIRES operates as a non profit social enterprise curating commercial real estate spaces for social enterprises. It operates 53 units across 29 buildings in Vancouver’s inner city, ie DTES.
Ramsay and Abbot, in their respective positions, advocated for BC Housing to direct contracts for property management toward CIRES. For example, CIRES manages the Luugat (formerly Howard Johnson on Granville) for Atira.
Ramsay, in his capacity as CEO of BC Housing, invested public funds in HPC Housing Investment Corporation (HIC), a federally incorporated private lending company founded jointly in 2018 by BC Housing, Manitoba Housing, and Housing Services Corporation of Ontario, with support from the federal government via CMHC’s Affordable Housing Innovation Fund.
Ramsay named himself the CEO of HIC.
Under Ramsay’s leadership BC Housing entered into service agreement with HIC, providing public funding in the amount of $1.65 million, in addition to committing BC Housing staff resources to the private lending company. No public record exists of government consultation or formal approval for the investment of public funds into this private lending company.
When the province of BC learned about the agreement between BC Housing and HIC and sought to end it, the province discovered that the lending company had advanced $70 million to its borrowers. Responsibility for these loans remains unclear.
HIC was never intended to serve as a subsidiary of BC Housing. Appointing himself, and not CEO BC Housing, as the CEO of HIC ensured he would remain in that role regardless of who became CEO of BC Housing.
HIC lends money to affordable housing projects on a longterm fixed rate financing basis. HIC structure allowed for Atira to obtain funds from BC Housing and loan debt from HIC, both organisations under Ramsay’s leadership control. The long-term fixed rate funding shields BC Housing from the cost of rising interest rates.
Shayne Ramsay and CFO Abbas Barodawalla obstructed the investigation by deleting their mobile phone text messages after being informed about the forensic audit and receiving instructions not to delete or destroy any correspondence.
The HIC governance page doesn’t list Ramsay. In his LinkedIn profile, Ramsay does not list HIC. It would appear Ramsay no longer has an affiliation with HIC. Currently he does consulting work and indicates that he remains open to work and does not seek full time work.
So, let’s recap.
Shayne Ramsay functioned as the CEO of BC Housing, while his wife Janice Abbot, functioned as CEO of Atira, the largest nonprofit housing provider in BC. Ramsay over-involved himself in BC Housing dealings that related to Atira. Atira received preferential treatment and its funding from BC Housing rose over a period of years. Atira’s for-profit arm has an affiliation with CIRES, a property management social enterprise. Atira received many direct awarded contracts from BC Housing. Ramsay and Abbot advocated for CIRES to receive property management contracts. Ramsay funnelled millions of dollars of BC Housing funds into a federally incorporated private lending company he founded with the Ontario and Manitoba housing crown corporations, assisted by the federal government through its housing slush fund. No record of any consultation or approval for the public investment into a private company exists according to the province of BC. Ramsay also committed BC Housing staff to the private lending company. By the time the province of BC discovered the arrangement between BC Housing and HIC, HIC had advanced $70 million to its borrowers. Ernst and Young could not ascertain responsibility for these outstanding loans, earmarked for housing projects in Edmonton and Vancouver.
What’s this mean?
It means a bunch of bourgeoisie mofos shuffled a sh1tload of public funds around under the guise of affordable housing and social enterprise and that money didn’t reach poor and marginalised and homeless people, and it didn’t improve their quality of life one iota. It means Shayne Ramsay siphoned public funds into a private company he headed from a crown corporation he headed, and he did it without any formal government approval.
Atira continues to operate the supportive housing at what’s now known as the ‘Luugat’ single-room occupancy hotel, or SRO.
“The way this building is being operated is unacceptable,” said ABC Vancouver Coun. Peter Meiszner on Tuesday, as a fire truck rolled down Granville Street with lights and sirens.
Meiszner said the operation of the site needs to be improved in the short term to address the impact of hundreds of water leaks and emergency calls on the neighbourhood, while residents of the building need proper supports.
Over the long term he said, the city is willing to work with the province on a plan to replace the Luugat SRO with new self-contained social housing units. — Kristen Robinson, Global News, 18.03.2025
As an aside the non profit enterprise (Community Impact Real Estate Society), which manages the Luugat for Atira, has a fancy website where they claim “we’re a social enterprise that cares about community and creating complete neighbourhoods through commercial real estate.” Through its for-profit funding arm, Atira continues to acquire properties, and reports an operating revenue of $68 million for the fiscal year ending 2023.
So, why do we have a housing crisis?
Well, because we have corrupt and diabolical Machiavellian bourgeoisie fckrs managing things and they dgaf about the social situations and the human suffering they use to bulk up their enterprises and justify their existence. The DTES has become an industry. The non profit sector has become a playground for sociopaths and grifters who seek to exploit.
Canadians can support independent journalism by purchasing paid subscriptions to independent media publications. I spend hours researching the investigative pieces that appear here, and I typically don’t paywall my stuff. Please support independent journalists.