Al McKay: Why I am proud to be a chaplain for the Portland Hotel Society
A funny thing happened on Sunday at church. I had been scheduled for a month to read the scriptures, and I felt a slight chill when I discovered the passage was John 12:1-11.
This is the story of Mary anointing Jesus’s feet with the perfume that was worth a year’s wages. Judas complained that it should have been sold, with the money going to the poor. Jesus stated that the poor would always be in the world but he would be with his disciples only a week longer.
I thought about where I would stand in this story and why the chill ran down my neck as I read.
I contract out to the Portland Hotel Society (PHS), the group that has been audited by the B.C. government and B.C. Housing and is accused of inappropriate use of funds.
I am the chaplain-come-spiritual-advisor for the PHS. Residents and staff call me different names depending on the context: Al, Pastor Al, SpirituAl, and Father.
I confess that during these last few days I have had a mixture of emotions—anger, grief, and gratitude.
Anger
Stories in the media that use language which inflates a perverse sensationalism make me angry. The PHS board and directors have been made out to be people motivated solely by greed.
The leadership that I know have lived out the belief that we are all connected as human beings and that it is obscene for people on the margins to live in conditions that do not respect humanity.
Perhaps the PHS staff and leadership have come alongside those on the margins in such strong ways that they have ruffled feathers of those in places of powers. I give my anger to the Creator and pray that my anger will be controlled not controlling.
Grief
Over the last 23 years, the leadership of the PHS have fought to give voice to those who are the most marginalized in Vancouver: the addict, the mentally ill, the HIV/AIDS and Hep C patient, the person in trouble with the law.
Their leadership has inspired the current staff of over 300 to see the "other" not as someone to fear or to lock up but as someone to learn from, someone who deserves the gift of radical hospitality.
The grief I recognize in residents and staff is a grief mixed with fear of a new PHS leadership not seeing people to be embraced but to be managed.
Eugene Peterson writes in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, “We live in a world that has replaced soul with self. This reduction turns people into either problems or consumers.” Will the three levels of government, along with the new board and directors of the PHS, see souls or will they simply see consumers and problems? If it is the latter, grief will continue.
Gratitude
I feel such a sense of gratitude for my opportunity to work with the senior leadership and staff of the PHS. The core leaders have had and have led with a fierce piercing vision that encourages all who work at the PHS to extend the gift of dignity to residents and colleagues.
One of the most precious roles I have with the PHS is to preside over memorials. Friends and acquaintances from the community, family, health professionals, and staff come to show their respects and tell their stories.
At every memorial I have helped facilitate, there have been expenses. An estimate cost, including my hours, would be $300 per memorial. I have done 70 in just over three years, totaling $21,000.
One way to account for these services would be:
| Flowers | $50 |
| Food | $100 |
| Facilitator | $130 |
| Photo frame | $20 |
| Connectedness + care + community + supporting family and friends as they grieve | PRICELESS |
One parent wrote, “Thirty years ago B’s father and I moved to northern B.C. B would not join us, so we said a prayer and gave her to Jesus to look after. He didn’t fail us. He took her to the PHS, and she lived to the end with a family of caring, loving staff, merchants and friends. We thank each of you…”
I thank God for the tremendous gift of working with the leadership and the staff and knowing some of the many residents who are cared for by the Portland Hotel Society.
To the three directors I know the best—Mark, Liz, and Kirsten—I say: May the God who knows the beginning and the end, who has known us from the beginning of time, give you comfort and his radical embrace for the way you have lived out the mandate of loving one’s neighbour.
Comments
16 Comments
G
Mar 28, 2014 at 11:55am
Are we going to see more of these "I work for PHS" stories making weak efforts to justify the actions of the resigned managers? I especially enjoyed the "MasterCard moment" outlined by the author, rather a backhanded defence of "Mark, Liz & Kirsten" when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars of credit card spending that is largely undocumented.
A
Mar 28, 2014 at 1:00pm
Are you really trying to justify the contentious use of PHS funding by likening it to the perfume poured on Jesus' feet? As in, there will always be poverty in the DTES so its a-ok to spend a goodly amount on trips and trikets.
That said, I do hope this scandal does not damage the ongoing good works that I am sure continue to happen in support of real need, nor completely tarnish the image of those who have done good work in the past.
tf
Mar 28, 2014 at 1:45pm
Thanks for your words Al.
I've listened to two interviews with Mark T. over the last 2 days and more than anything, he comes across as heartfelt and apologetic, but not for taking action when no one else would. That is priceless as Pastor Al says.
When Rich Coleman attends a memorial service for another death in the Downtown Eastside, I "may" begin to listen to his opinion.
Lee L
Mar 28, 2014 at 2:44pm
I am happy that there are people like Al that can vouch for the good work done by PHS and its executives over the years. It makes it taste less bad to know the clients and taxpayers actually did get good work for money paid and I feel better believing that their was not such a cynical scam at work as the media have painted.
Yet there was minimal oversight and a demanding workload fuelled by a fierce but contentious inner conviction engaged in a struggle,and it is common enough that this combination over time begets a sense of entitlement and autonomy. These kinds of warriors may eventually see as superfluous or counterproductive the requirement to answer for spending of the treasure. In time the treasury becomes looked upon as 'their own'.
I point to our Senate as proof of that pudding. The Senate has fed and harboured many good people whose intentions are now suspect since as we should by now know, most Canadians are not doing as well as these Senators ( or as well as the executives of the PHS) and it just leaves a bad taste that wont go away to know that there actually is that sense of entitlement at taxpayers' expense. It is too, for many, a revelation that there actually is a poverty industry trough right in the midst of the squalor of the DES that is big enough to cough up $120,000-$160,000 per year in salary, plus travel perks and so on. No matter how good you make it sound, it just tastes BAD to most people and maybe losing sight of that was the only crime of the people involved.
Next crowd of poverty industrialists .... do a great job but take heed.
James G
Mar 28, 2014 at 4:37pm
It's nice to know that some think that the Road of Good Intention has more than one destination. The old joke went, "We're giving this money to the poor!" "What poor?" "US poor!".
Anyone drawing a salary well into the six figures, booking luxurt hotel rooms in New York, Edmonton and Germany on public money earmarked for addressing poverty and/or riding the nepotism gravy train has no business calling themselves an anti-poverty activist. There may be many more suitable terms, mostly unrepeatable.
Barry William Teske
Mar 28, 2014 at 4:47pm
I support the banning of anonymous comments.
caveman
Mar 28, 2014 at 5:41pm
Obscene? Has Al read the report? How much were Mark & Liz charging for a home office again Al? The PHS directors may have cared - but that doesn't mean they weren't living high on the hog either. These are not mutually exclusive conditions. Al seems to think that because they cared, they couldn't be guilty of any wrongdoing. Yet, they were dismissed. Weak logic Al.
connie harrison
Mar 29, 2014 at 7:43am
you cant excuse this waste and fraud it is impossible to defend maybe better if this agency is shut down or run directly by the goverment
Daniel S
Mar 29, 2014 at 10:02am
The PHS workers are behaving as cult members with their defence of their bosses. Of course they are doing important, valuable work. And of course there is a lot of outside (often ignorant criticism). However that does not make it right for the directors to do sloppy accounting and make questionable expenses.
All the PHS workers that defending their wonderful bosses should ask themselves how many more resources could have been deployed if their bosses had not spent these funds on stuff that is far less important than the work they are doing.
Tommy C
Mar 29, 2014 at 10:34am
No I don't consider their salaries obscene, they all make less then the BC housing top execs. They manage a 56 million dollar charity, they make a decent living, and have given far more than they have taken