Fort Saskatchewan’s Healing Homes program lost its primary supporters this month.

Steve Switzer and Mike Hankirk have announced they will no longer contribute, due to a disagreement with Families First over how the program is operating and where their money is going.

The Healing Homes program was Switzer’s initiative and he spent a year in search of a group willing to take on the project before convincing Families First to do so.

Healing Homes was established in 2023 to provide medium-term housing for local women fleeing domestic violence. Two homes were purchased with funding provided by Hankirk and Switzer. The homes were named in honour of their mothers, Pat’s Place and Doreen’s Place.

The pair have also continued to donate $72,000 annually to cover mortgage and operating expenses.

Switzer’s wife, Jackie Switzer, joined the Families First board and organized a major fundraiser for the society which netted $50,000 last year.

Problems began when Switzer and Hankirk started pushing for a financial report on the program, as well as a progress report. The report wasn’t produced until just the past November, and showed that money was going where it shouldn’t and that the program was not meeting its initial goals and purpose, Steve Switzer said this week.

Switzer had hoped the program would help women establish a firm new financial base. He had suggested either charging no rent, or keeping the rent charged in a separate account that would be returned to the women upon leaving, thus providing a nest egg to start a new life.

Worse, the program appears to lack structure of any kind, lacking guidelines for who should be housed and even how money should be spent, he said.

“We trusted them for way too long,” Switzer said.

When Hankirk and Switzer started pushing on these matters, they were stonewalled, Switzer says. “They treated us like we were on the outside looking in.”

Switzer offered to sit down with the Families First staff and board, perhaps forming a special committee with others, such as local RCMP, to better define the program.

Instead, they were stonewalled, Switzer says. They were told Canada Revenue Agencies rules for Registered Charities do not allow donors to interfere with operations of a program.

When Jackie Switzer investigated this claim, finding it to be untrue, she was told to step down from the Families First board.

Steve Switzer and Hankirk are now looking for another partner group to continue the Healing Homes concept. He notes that Families First has enough funds still available to cover their mortgage payments for several more years.

Families First officials say they intend to continue operating Healing Homes.

“Families First continues to operate Healing Homes and is committed to supporting people experiencing or who are at risk of relationship violence through Healing Homes and our Families Violence Prevention Program,” says executive director Darryl Burry.

“While both parties recognize the need for second-stage housing in our community, the donors and Families First had differing views on the donors’ level of involvement in operation decision for the program,” he adds.

"Families First has followed all regulations set out by the Canada Revenue Agency related to the use of designated/donated funds to a particular program. We also have audited financial statements from each year since the inception of the program to verify that the funds were used as designated."