A year ago the PHS Community Services Society,
a sprawling non-profit known worldwide for providing housing, clean
needles and compassion to Vancouver’s addicts, nearly overdosed on bad
spending.
Since then, the society has significantly increased its
spending and holdings in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and big
financial risks remain.
The society now has $18-million in debt
and $70-million of land and buildings in the DTES. But Ted Bruce, the
veteran public health official who took over the society, believes the
non-profit will survive, and continue to run its controversial
supervised injection site.
Started in 1996 with assets of just
$2,400, PHS rapidly gained government contracts for harm reduction
services in the DTES. It was credited for having passionate employees
dedicated to a small and innovative management team.
But in early
2014 senior managers were forced to resign after several explosive
audits uncovered hundreds of thousands spent on luxurious travel, limos,
spas, family vacations, and gifts. There were also questions about a
land deal that appeared to bolster the society’s balance sheet, and a
web of “social venture” companies owned by employees that auditors
believed “present an elevated risk of fraud, corruption and abuse.”