Standing inside her nonprofit-run rental unit in downtown Windsor, Ont., Sue Pare points out a crack in her kitchen floor that she can’t fix.
“I put in a work order and didn’t hear anything for a while,” Pare said.
That order came in four years ago, according to Pare, who shares his wheelchair-accessible unit with his daughter who lives with cerebral palsy.
Pare has been here for 35 years and remembers quick repairs in the past.
“They were very on top of the maintenance of the buildings. The grounds were very well maintained,” he said.
“Then it became, ‘We don’t have money to fix it right now.'”
While Pare searched for a solution for his kitchen floor, the Labor Sponsored Community Development Group (LSCDG), which manages his affordable housing unit and hundreds of others, was looking to solve its own financial problems.
Court documents filed by LSCDG and obtained by CBC News show allegations of financial misconduct totaling $3 million by the organization’s executive director, Anna Angelidis, and two administrators she supervised: her sons Jim and Danny.
“We received information that we found incredulous at first,” said Dino Chiodo, president of the LSCDG board of directors.
“But when we started looking into it and doing our own research, we started to realize that things didn’t necessarily add up.”
The investigation claims there were unauthorized wage increases to the family totaling half a million dollars over four years, $1.7 million in payments to a family member’s company for work not required or completed, and projects charged to the nonprofit that were completed in their family homes.
The organization also claims that Anna paid vendors $1.4 million spread across 479 checks that were previously stamped by former board member Gary Parent after his death last May.
Last October, the LSCDG board of directors unanimously agreed during an emergency meeting to fire the three members of the Angelidis family.
In December last year, each dismissed family member filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit seeking combined damages of at least $735,000.
The documents claim the three acted with professionalism while working at the Labor Sponsored Community Development Group.
Family members say they never received a formal reprimand for any issues before their firing and were fired without severance, the documents say.
Nonprofit seeks at least $3 million in damages
This was met with LSCDG counterclaims filed in April seeking at least $3 million in damages, with a warning that the figure could rise as the investigation continues.
The Angelidis family has not filed a response to the counterclaims.
Their lawyer, Gurlal Kler, said they intend to follow the legal process and would provide the family with a request for comment in response to the allegations on behalf of CBC News.
CBC News has not yet received a response.
Pare, who was aware that the family was fired but not the specific details of the allegations, called the family’s alleged actions “despicable.”
“That certainly explains why they weren’t doing any repairs,” he said.
The City of Windsor, which provides most of the nonprofit’s funding, launched a review of the LSCDG sometime in 2022.
The review raised operational concerns, according to court documents, which the city told Anna about in November 2023.
But that information never reached the board, even though the city asked Anna to schedule a meeting with the board, according to the court filing.
It is unclear when, or if, the city sent the review directly to the board. A city spokesperson declined to comment because of the court case.
The review found evidence of unexplained expenses, undisclosed conflicts of interest with suppliers and fees paid above market rates.
It also concluded that Anna failed to disclose key information necessary for the effective governance of the board in her role as chief executive.
CEO Spent Decades at Nonprofit
Anna, 67, had spent almost 40 years working for LSCDG when she was made redundant.
She was previously CFO before being promoted to CEO in 2002.
That promotion put her in charge of Windsor and Essex County Housing Information Services (HIS), which administers the Keep the Heat program that helps pay utility bills for low-income families.
As CEO of HIS, Anna was responsible forr dozens of employees and $4.3 million in city and regional tax dollars, according to the nonprofits’ most recent disclosures.
Anna also pushed for the creation of the Homelessness and Housing Help Center (H4) in downtown Windsor, which eventually fell into her HIS portfolio.
It also managed 228 income-oriented and market-oriented rental units managed by LSCDG, as well as 300 units rented through private landlords.
A family member’s company received almost $1.8 million: documents
Between 2021 and 2024, a company run by a member of Anna’s family was paid $1,798,297 for work in LSCDG units, according to court documents.
that work was not awarded through a bidding process, which would allow againstThe actors bid on the project and moved forward without following a policy that required Anna to disclose whether a vendor paid for the work was a family member, according to the court filing.
LSCDG says in its court papers that the work was performed poorly, if at all, and may not have been necessary.
The filing also accuses the Angelidis family of performing work in their own homes with the promise of obtaining work contracts on LSCDG properties or paid for by LSCDG.
It amounts to $27,000 of work paid for by LSCDG or canceled by vendors for roofing, lawn mowing and tree trimming work at the home of Jim and another family member.
Chiodo said the board is frustrated, disappointed and feels terrible about what happened.
“I think it’s fair to say that as a board of directors, you come and talk about things that come your way,” Chiodo said.
“Sometimes when you work with someone and they give you detailed information and you’re looking at the documentation, you take what they present to you and take it at face value.”
He said the board considered filing criminal charges but did not say whether they are pursuing that option.
The Windsor Crown prosecutor’s office told CBC News to direct questions to police.
A spokesperson for the Windsor Police Service said no charges have been filed.
Chiodo said they are working more closely with the city and other partners to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and that they have given more authority to individuals in the organization so that power is not concentrated in a single position.
He said since the Angelidis family was laid off late last year, the number of complaints has decreased, finances have improved and supplier complaints have also decreased.
“We are a sustainable organization that can maintain its operations and I think we can thrive and do much better,” Chiodo said when asked what he would say to tenants.
“I think we’re going to continue to make better improvements so people feel more comfortable in their home and in the unit they rent,” he said.
Pare and his neighbors have seen changes recently that give them hope that things will improve, such as trimming trees and cleaning eaves.
“It’s a wonderful place to live here, otherwise I wouldn’t be here, and I’ve been here for 35 years,” Pare laughed.
He wants the board to be successful and more transparent about the issues they will face in the future.
“So that’s my hope, that everything can go back to something positive.”
