[homeles_ot-l] Nelson House Update - June 19th

[Linda Lalonde]

Hi folks, 
I’ve had a lot of questions about what’s happened with Nelson House and what’s being done about it. As most of you will already know, Nelson House is an Ottawa shelter for women who have been victims of violence and their children. Since late last month, it has been closed “temporarily” and its clientele are being directed elsewhere. There is an Action Committee, mandated by the people who attended the public meetings to work towards solutions, that has been coordinating community efforts . 
The Action Committee is holding an open meeting tomorrow night, June 20th, at the Overbrook Community Centre, 33 Quill Street at 7 pm with the aim of bringing everyone up to date on the situation at that time. We are encouraging people involved in the injunction application, current and past NH board members, VAW community members and others who have taken an interest in continuing the services of Nelson House to participate. 
Acronym alert: NH = Nelson House; VAW = Violence Against Women; MCSS = Ministry of Community & Social Services (also known as Comsoc); AC = Action Committee 
I can’t give you all the information about how this came about or what’s being done about it by the various players that are involved because, like virtually everyone else, I simply don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle. I have been working with the Action Committee, a group whose goal is to ensure that the services aren’t lost and that the beds are re-opened as soon as possible. I have also been connecting, where it’s possible, with other groups and organizations working with the same population and have been receiving phone calls and emails from various interested individuals with information. As far as I know, none of the information I have has come, directly or indirectly, from the board of directors other than the few public statements they have made. 
There have been a number of accusations flying around that various people have ‘hidden agendas’ that they are working from as they participate in this situation. So I thought I might as well state my biases upfront. I have worked closely with unions and the labour movement, including CUPE, for almost 20 years. I have known one of the Nelson House staff for a very long time although I didn’t know she worked there. Over the past few weeks, I have met several other staff members and have been exchanging information with one of them. I am a feminist and support the provision of services to women using feminist models. I have been active in the community for over thirty years as an advocate, a member of local, provincial and national community boards and a user of the services of community agencies. I have also worked with staff at both the City and MCSS on a variety of community issues. 
So, what’s going on? 
Nelson House (NH) is a first-stage shelter with 15 beds and around 30 full and part time unionized staff that has been in existence for about 20 years. It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Its primary funding, approximately $756,080, comes from the Ontario Ministry of Community & Social Services. It is an incorporated charitable organization administered by an elected board of directors. Its last AGM was held in November of 2010 and, under both the Corporations Act and the NH bylaws, the next one is overdue. I’ve attached the links to the CRA Charities filing from 2011, a public document which gives an overview of the operations for the year ending March 31, 2011. This shelter has been in a somewhat similar situation about 15 years ago when it was shut down for a period of time because of internal difficulties. 
One of the requirements of Ministry funding is the completion of regular risk assessments. This is the case in many government-funded services and not unique to the VAW sector. It has seven areas: governance, service delivery, stakeholder satisfaction, financial, legal, technology and human resources. The Ministry ranks the risk in each area as high, medium or low and then does an overall ranking of high, medium or low. If there are concerns raised by the assessment, the Ministry will require an enhanced assessment which is on the same seven areas but is more detailed. This will lead to the development of a mitigation plan that must be completed to the Ministry’s satisfaction. 
Continued funding of some or all of an organization’s operations would hinge on the correction of the areas of concern. NH’s regular risk assessment raised multiple concerns and they were required to do an enhanced assessment. The board completed the enhanced assessment and, after they had the results, brought in consultants to look at their operations. The consultants’ report has been provided to the board and MCSS but has not been released to the staff, the membership or the public. 
NH has been without an Executive Director for a year. From January to March, the board hired an interim ED on a part-time basis to give them an opportunity to look for a permanent person. As far as I know, the job was never posted, publicly or in the VAW sector, with the rather predictable result that it was not filled. There have also been some other vacant positions. During this period, staff has worked without onsite management other than the three months with the interim ED. The only oversight they have had would have come directly from the board. 
There have been vacancies on the board since the November 2010 AGM and the board has stated they have been unable to fill them. I have not seen any call for board members and neither has anyone else I have spoken to - including members of the Corporation. I would expect they would be the first place you would appeal to and the board’s silence has not only deprived them of board members but deprived the community of an opportunity to come forward with assistance. I have seen dozens of people out at public meetings when the difficulties became known, many of whom are mystified that the situation has deteriorated this far with nobody reaching out to the community for help. 
Sometime in May (possibly the 24th), after they had received the MCSS results and the report of their consultants, the board met and decided to close the shelter “temporarily”. They went to the shelter on Friday, May 25th and advised both staff and residents that they would have to leave that day, citing safety concerns and risks as the reason. The residents were moved to other safe locations and the staff placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits. I understand that MCSS oversaw the relocation of the residents to ensure they went to a place of safety. The house has been closed ever since and the staff remain on paid leave. 
Staff and other community members called for a public meeting which was held on May 31st at the Hintonburg Community Centre with well over a hundred people in attendance, some of whom had connections to various staff members but the majority of whom were concerned citizens. At the conclusion of the meeting, an Action Committee was set up to see what could be done to return the NH beds to service. Another public meeting was arranged for the following week on June 7th. 
People in attendance filled out membership applications to join the Corporation and, since they could not be turned in at the House, they were delivered to the office of the NH lawyer. 
The board announced in early June that they would hold a members meeting on the 14th with three items on the agenda: to close the shelter permanently; to reduce the number of directors to 3 and to dissolve the NH Corporation. Although the bylaws require 20 days notice for a members meeting and public posting of the notice, mailings went out on June 3rd only to the members. Some long-time members have never received the notice of meeting. The bylaws also provide for public meetings and the board stated that only members would be admitted. 
The board advised those who had applied on or after May 31st that their applications would not be accepted because they were not known to the board and would have to undergo background checks before becoming members. As a result, they would not be allowed to attend the June 14th meeting. This ‘unacceptable’ group included a well-respected former parliamentarian, several former NH members, well-known community leaders and active members of the VAW community. Board members are, for obvious reasons, required to submit police checks but it is not a requirement of members of the NH Corporation under the bylaws nor is it past practice. 
At the June 7th community meeting, participants discussed several possible avenues to respond to both the shelter closure and the June 14th meeting being called by the board. The June 14th meeting was in clear violation of both the NH bylaws and the Corporations Act. The Action Committee was mandated by the group to look at what steps could be taken to stop that meeting from happening and to engage the community further. It’s important to note that several people have tried to reach out to the board with no success through this process. 
A sub-committee looked at the possibility of filing for an injunction to stop the meeting but was advised by a lawyer that it would probably not be successful. Cost was also an issue since, even if we could find a lawyer to do it pro bono, there is always the risk of an award of costs to the other side. I understand that CUPE, the staff’s union, also decided not to file because the court would direct them towards other methods of labour relations resolution. On the morning of June 14th, the scheduled day for the members meeting, an injunction application was filed by a lawyer with funding from the NH staff and in the name of some community members. This includes some members of the Action Committee acting in their personal capacities and not as AC members. The immediate result of this application was that the board agreed not to go ahead with the June 14th members meeting. 
Because the Action Committee is not a party to the application, we do not have access to all the information about it. We do know that the board is negotiating with the applicants and that, among other things, the composition of the board itself is on the table. The applicants are also seeking the release of the risk assessment, the consultants’ report and the financial statements since, without them, it is not possible to understand the scope and depth of the problems facing Nelson House. It will also be difficult to recruit a new ED and new board members to take on the NH challenges without knowing what the true situation is. Community members have no way to evaluate what kinds of support are needed at NH to make it a properly functioning organization. For some people, the deep secrecy has been an indicator that there may be unsolvable problems at NH and/or that people are using the need for confidentiality to protect their own interests. 
On June 15th, MCSS met with the VAW community and re-iterated their firm commitment, regardless of the outcome of the situation at NH, to retain the funding for those services within Ottawa. If NH is closed permanently, there will be some costs involved and the Ministry will cover what they can of those costs. If the decision is to re-open the beds, the problems raised in the risk assessment would have to be addressed first and a mitigation plan put in place. In the meantime, MCSS will continue to support the community to provide the whole range of services that are now in place for abused women and their children. It was clear that it will take some time before re-opening the beds would be possible. 
One thing that is clear is that there are a lot of people out in the community that are very concerned about the loss of service at Nelson House. There are people who are interested in working to ensure that the ultimate victims of this i.e. women and children fleeing violence, will have a safe place to go and services when they get there. 


 
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