Two years before CBC News revealed that dozens of people had allegedly abused a B.C. Housing affordable homeownership program in Victoria, the agency’s leaders were warned there was a “high risk” the situation could become public.
According to documents obtained through a freedom of information (FOI) request, B.C. Housing’s executive committee was warned in April 2022 the public might take a “negative” view of the revelations as “a possible failing by B.C. Housing to prevent program abuse or, in the worst case, fraud.”
The documents say the agency’s communications team had a plan to demonstrate a “swift and fulsome approach” to dealing with purchasers accused of gaming a program that was designed to get middle-income British Columbians into the housing market — but kept quiet.
This is going to keep happening as long as governments keep outsourcing new “affordable” housing projects to developers.
It makes far more sense to me to administer the projects publicly and source materials and trades directly instead of through the obnoxious matryoshka middleman system that is public-private partnership.
Also we badly need to fucking build non-market housing.