Domestics down

>> Coldhearted Caisse leaves Filipinas
sleeping par terre

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

After a hard week changing diapers and mopping floors, low-paid Asian homemakers from the Magical Filipina agency like to kick back and put their feet up. That’s not a real possibility these days as the women are forced to camp on whatever unclaimed turf they can claim in their shared home. Wall-to-wall women—14 and counting—have been forced to sleep cheek to jowl on mattresses carpeting every floor surface except the kitchen of their Verdun digs.
The owner of the business that imports the women—most of whom eventually become landed immigrants—says the conditions are anybody’s fault but his own. A progressive arrangement that would have seen several Filipina homemakers assume half ownership of their Verdun living quarters appears to have fallen victim to a standoff between the agency and the Caisse Populaire Desjardins. The agency owns the other half.

Harvey Litvack of the Magical Filipina says that the women are making like sardines because the Caisse is illegally backing out of an agreement to disburse cash required to finish a renovation job. He believes that the Caisse has cooled to the idea of financing the low-paid domestics. “They don’t like the idea of minimum wage Oriental girls being owners,” says Litvack. “They say they’re not happy with the credit of the girls because they make $14,000 a year.”

Litvack’s funding frustrations started in 1999 when his two-year hunt for a home for the domestics bore fruit as he purchased two Verdun sixplexes in need of major renovations. After arranging for $165,000 in government grants and enlisting the service of the McGill University chapter of Habitat for Humanity, Litvack engineered a scheme that would see the domestics pay $125–150 a month, all included, for thoroughly modern digs where they’d also serve as co-owners. When the women hang up their featherdusters for good, the ownership scheme will allow them to walk away with some equity. “It’s a dowry, it’ll give them a chance at a better life,” says Litvack. He says the women will leave with around $100 a month for every month they lived in the home.

After the first building at 335 6th Avenue was “renovated from A to Z,” the second, at 5339 Wellington, was stalled after two contractors successively went bankrupt. Litvack says he suspects he was defrauded but now has a more reputable contractor on the nail gun.

The problem now is that the Caisse isn’t returning his calls, much less writing cheques. “When we bought the building, the mortgage covered the initial purchase plus 75 per cent of the renos,” he says, adding that $80,000 in renovation grants from Quebec and Verdun will expire in March if the Caisse keeps giving him the runaround. “If the grants run out we’ll never be able to finish the building,” he says.
Caisse Pop official Gaston Tremblay refuses to comment on whether his bank is withholding funding based on the domestics’ paltry earnings. Instead he claims that Litvack has failed to supply necessary financial information the Caisse has requested since October 2000. Litvack differs with that interpretation. “Bullshit,” he says, seeing no solution in sight. “The Caisse has a complete list of everything that has been done and has to be done, including an updated financial statement. What else do they need?” :