Portland Hotel Society staffers are still reeling from the recent audit that saw four of their organization's leaders resign. Amid the shakeup, a group of current and former PHS employees has put forward a plan to continue offering some of its more innovative services previously covered by the organization's administrative funding.

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The Save PHS group will fundraise on an ongoing basis and meet monthly with PHS workers and residents (non-residents such as Insite participants must be vouched for by a PHS worker) to vote on how to spend the money available each month.

Attendees will be able to request money for services previously covered by PHS administrative fees, such as vet bills, clothing for residents' job interviews, transportation and funding to hold memorials when residents die.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman has said the new board won't continue to fund the PHS's social enterprises, such as laundry and janitorial services, a beekeeping project and a café. Newly appointed interim chair of the board Faye Wightman said she doubts the interim board will attempt to change PHS services, instead focusing the next few months on appointing a new permanent board.

Save PHS members will also set savings targets for longer-term projects such as holiday dinners and lunch programs. Workers will be allowed to request reimbursement for emergency expenses paid out of pocket.

Those who receive funding will be asked to write a short report detailing how it was spent.

75 staff signed on

The group has begun reaching out to potential donors, and plans to register as a non-profit society and elect a treasurer to write the cheques.

Organizer Nicholas Ellan, who has done piecemeal work for the PHS in the past, said he wanted to find a way to give frontline workers a chance to make an immediate and positive step toward continuing services in the Downtown Eastside. He said many people worried that speaking out would cost them their jobs.

"[Workers] told me they had to take on a position of just lying to residents everyday, saying that things are going to be okay, and everyone was put into a state of extreme anxiety," he said.

So far, 75 current PHS workers have signed on. The organizers have also received offers of support from students and professors on several campuses across the province who are studying harm reduction concepts and want to help.

'A higher standard'

Ellan said the structure is designed to make use of workers' expertise to determine where the money is needed most, as well as to allow workers direct access to the source of funding.

"In our case it's going to be people deciding at the end of the work day what they're going to do with the money tomorrow." By recruiting a board and advisors to guide decision-making, and providing donors with monthly reports, Ellan said, the organizers intend to hold themselves to a higher standard than is typically required of non-profits.

"The most important thing is to make sure we have every i dotted and t crossed in terms of the legal obligation for the non-profit going forward to ensure our obligation for transparency and accountability to not only to donors but also to workers and residents." Once the process of incorporating is complete, supporters will be able to donate via the group's website.

Ellan said he hopes whoever takes over the PHS board will pledge support for the new group, adding that news of the audit was devastating for many PHS employees.

"One of the scariest thing about the whole situation was that there seemed to be no response. There was no ability for anyone to do anything about it," he said. "Workers were forced into a situation where they simply had to continue going through the motions, hoping that nothing would change, even knowing things were already changing and their ability to do their jobs was already being limited."