Fraud Scheme
I've became aware of a fraud scheme being committed by the Barrie Municipal Non-Profit Housing Corporation ("BMNPHC"), also known as 'Barrie Housing', and in an effort to silence me, the BMNPHC has launched a defamation action against me. However, I’ve filed a motion to dismiss it under rule 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act (“CJA”). My Motion to Dismiss was scheduled to be heard on December 31, 2024, and although I don’t have a legal background, at all, I copied-and-pasted a significant portion of the Factum used by Doug Ford’s “anti-SLAPP” Motion to Dismiss for the defamation action launched by OPP Commissioner Bradley Blair, because its available online. However, Justice McKelvey didn't think there was enough time for it to be heard in half-an-hour (and I agree), so it will be rescheduled. The new date has not been set yet.
I figured out Barrie Housing was engaged in a fraud scheme when I discovered the New York City Housing Authority ("NYCHA") was engaged in the exact same scheme. I stumbled across an article published on CityLimits.org and that's when I realized that Barrie Housing was knee-deep in the exact same thing.
Here's a copy of the article, plus a copy of an article I wrote right beside it, to help show readers the Canadian-version of the similarities between the two:
How I Found Out
During the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020, there was a period of time when non-essential employees were not allowed to physically go to work. This meant that social assistance administrators such as Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (“CCSS”) and Employment and Social Development Canada (“ESDC”) employees were not able to physically go to work. This resulted in all social assistance beneficiaries receiving the maximum amount of social assistance benefits via automatic deposit, even though they weren’t eligible for the max amounts.
This caused all social assistance beneficiaries, such as myself, to receive way too much money, and we're all paying it back each month now. This is not the problem. This explanation simply describes the circumstances leading to the issue.
In late 2021, I became aware of an overcharge on my housing account file after I inquired about my new rental rate on four separate occasions: Sept. 28, 2021, Feb. 5, 2022, Mar. 14, 2022, and Apr. 10, 2022, and only after I threatened to expose the BMNPHC to national news outlets for not telling me the amount of my overcharge.
I ended up having a half-hour-long phone call with Barrie Housing CEO, Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk, as seen below, and that's when I found out that the Ontario Disability Support Program ("ODSP") had been paying my rent directly to Barrie Housing on my behalf. Since no one told me though, I was also paying my rent.
Recorded Phone Call
I recorded this phone call between myself and Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk on April 26, 2022, because if phone calls aren't recorded with Barrie Housing, their staff lie about what they say. Here are some key statements made by Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk, at the following time stamps:
1:04: “But there is a large credit and a significant portion we can absolutely release before we even talk about that; the ODSP piece.”
12:48: “… this is all you making overpayments because if you’re double paying on your rent, we owe you that money back to you, not to ODSP.”
17:05: “Yeah, and we’ll just communicate that with you. Like, we’ll break-it-down; this is how much is going to you, this is how much is going to ODSP, and then by the end of this, your balance should be zero.”
Here's the audio recording, if you'd like to listen for yourself:
Finally, on May 9, 2022, Barrie Housing issued me a cheque in the amount of $2,628.53. At the time, I didn't suspect Barrie Housing of being dishonest about the amount of my overcharge. However, on October 30, 2024, I received the direct-payment ledger directly from ODSP, which is when I found out that ODSP had been paying my rent directly to Barrie Housing on-and-off for seven years (between 2015 and 2022).
Barrie Housing's Refusal to Provide a Financial Breakdown
Here is a table of the specific times I requested the audit / review documents that explain how Barrie Housing came up with the $2,628.53 overcharge number.
Service Manager Delegation Agreement
I finally submitted an MFIPPA request for a copy of the Service Manager Delegation Agreement between Barrie Housing and the County of Simcoe. That's when I discovered that Barrie Housing has contravened sections 7.07, 7.08, 8.03, 9.01, 9.02, 9.03, 9.04, 9.05, 9.09, 9.11, and 11.06 of its Service Agreement with the County of Simcoe.
Part VIII, s. 8.03
Part VIII, s. 8.03 of the Service Manager Delegation Agreement is specifically about internal reviews. It states:
“The Service Agent agrees that it shall receive requests for internal reviews from applicant or occupant households in accordance with Sections 155 to 159 of the Act and Sections 138 and 139 of the Regulation…”
Under section 155, 156 and 158 of the Housing Services Act ("HSA"), it states:
System for dealing with reviews
155 (1) A service manager shall have a system for dealing with reviews requested under section 156 or 157. 2011, c. 6, Sched. 1, s. 155 (1).
Prescribed requirements
(4) The system must comply with the prescribed requirements. 2011, c. 6, Sched. 1, s. 155 (4).
Reviews requested by households
156 A member of a household may, on behalf of the household, request a review of the following decisions:
4. A determination, under subsection 50 (1), of the amount of rent payable by the household.
Rules for reviews
158 The following rules apply to a review requested under section 156 or 157:
2. The review body shall give its decision in writing and shall give reasons in writing.
3. The review body shall give notice of its decision and reasons to,
i. the person who requested the review.
The BMNPHC does not receive requests for internal reviews from occupant households in accordance with Sections 155, 156 and 158 of the HSA, despite occupant households making requests for internal reviews.
In the BMNPHC’s Statement of Claim for its defamation action against me, dated September 16, 2024, paragraph 21 states:
“a. The defendant was receiving additional income supplements that she ought not be receiving and owed those funds back to the providers;
b. As a result, her income supplement providers had paid the defendant’s rent directly to Barrie Housing, which resulted in an overpayment, which was to be returned to either the defendant or directly to the assistance provider.”
I don’t know why the BMNPHC is saying that multiple income supplement providers were paying my rent directly because they refuse to explain anything about this matter, so I recently submitted a Freedom of Information request to Employment and Social Development Canada (“ESDC”) to find out if they too, were paying my rent directly to Barrie Housing, in addition to the CCSS.
Furthermore, if the pandemic triggered the CCSS into making automatic payments directly to housing services providers, then ODSP started paying housing services providers directly on behalf of ALL its ODSP beneficiaries who have housing services providers, such as the BMNPHC and the Simcoe County Housing Corporation ("SCHC").
In Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk’s affidavit sworn on October 4, 2024, in paragraph 15, i), she stated:
“…The respondent herself admits in this phone call that she was receiving extra income that she ought not be receiving, which resulted in an overpayment of her rent…”
As seen in Mary-Anne's affidavit, she said that some of the extra income I was receiving resulted in an overpayment of my rent.
In paragraph 15, h), ii) of Mary-Anne’s affidavit sworn on October 4, 2024, she stated:
“…Barrie Housing was determining the proper manner of handling this credit as the overpayment was due, in part, to ODSP paying Barrie Housing directly, and Barrie Housing believed that the credit, or a portion of that credit, ought to be repaid directly to ODSP;”
And in paragraph 9 in Mary-Anne’s affidavit sworn on October 16, 2024, she stated:
“…as I indicated to the defendant in that recording, Barrie Housing needed to determine if the overpayment of the defendant’s rent was properly credited to her, or whether any amounts needed to be repaid directly to ODSP as ODSP was the party paying a portion of the defendant’s rent directly.”
Mary-Anne stated that she believed a portion of my credit ought to be repaid directly to ODSP, but according to ODSP, Barrie Housing never gave any money back to them. On November 1, 2024, my ODSP case worker, Ashley Walker, responded to my inquiry regarding reimbursements made by Barrie Housing, and this was her response:
“…You were also asking if your housing provider, Barrie Municipal Non-Profit Housing Corporation reimbursed ODSP for overpaying rent back in April or May of 2022? Did you ask Housing? I do not see in the notes that ODSP was reimbursed for overpaying your rent…”
Mary-Anne has made multiple statements regarding her desire to return at least a portion of my overcharged rent to ODSP, but she never did.
During the recorded phone call between me and Mary-Anne from April 26, 2022 (listed above), at time stamp 12:48, Mary-Anne stated:
“…if you’re double paying on your rent we owe that money back to you not to ODSP.”
Mary-Anne told me that I would be returned the overcharged rent money, but she keeps telling the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that ODSP should get it, even though ODSP never got any money back from her.
On November 25, 2024, the CCSS responded to my Application 1 Form from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”). Within its Form 2 Response, paragraph 4 states:
“…the complaint may be more appropriately made against the Barrie Municipal Non-Profit Housing Corporation and the Simcoe County Housing Corporation. The Ministry is not responsible for the actions of those corporations, their employees or their administration.”
My complaint against the CCSS has nothing to do with the BMNPHC. My complaint against the CCSS is in regards to it providing me with contradicting numbers in its response to my MFIPPA request for the number of ODSP beneficiaries in Barrie and Innisfil each year since 2021 (two different CCSS staff gave me two different answers), once the “true” numbers were confirmed, the number of ODSP beneficiaries in these regions either remained the same or decreased each year since the pandemic, while Ontario Works (“O.W”) beneficiaries skyrocketed (O.W = welfare). Also, ODSP applicants were being directed to go to Newmarket to submit their ODSP applications. Clearly, these concerns have nothing to do with Barrie Housing, yet the CCSS still said my complaint is more appropriate to be made against Barrie Housing and Simcoe County Housing.
Derivative Action
On December 17, 2024, I filed a notice of application for leave to commence a derivative action against the BMNPHC, pursuant to s. 183, 184 & 186 of the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act of Ontario, with the Superior Court of Justice because I've been trying to get an investigation into Barrie Housing for six months without any luck.
I don't know how Barrie Housing calculates rent. They've said that RGI rent rates are usually around 30 per cent of earned income. But neither Barrie Housing nor the County of Simcoe will tell me what percentage is used to determine RGI rent calculations. The only thing they're doing is telling me I'm wrong with absolutely nothing to back-up their claims that my overcharge was only $2,628.53. In fact, they've spent over $14,000.00 on legal fees thus far to make sure I never get that financial breakdown that Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk already said she'd give me on June 26, 2022.