Montreal housing crisis hitting the young, Conseil Jeunesse de Montreal makes recommendations to city

MONTREAL – The city is suffering from residential precarity, according to the Conseil Jeunesse de Montreal, with people having trouble finding housing and difficulty retaining a dwelling.

The council is most concerned about is the possibility of the young being unable to move through a range of housing during the different stages of their lives. But the council has recommendations to cure it.

“There was this post where 45 people would wait in line to just go visit one apartment. It’s completely insane, the crisis, right now,” said Olivier Laurin, a Concordia University student.

Laurin says, fortunately, for now, he’s living with his parents while he continues his search for a new home.

“Obviously, the underbelly, the ugly underbelly of the crisis has been revealed by the health crisis that is currently going on. But this is a problem that’s been in evolution for decades,” said Benjamin Herrera, the president of the Conseil Jeunesse de Montréal

“This is a problem that has been hitting metropolises across Canada, around the United States. This is not a Montreal-specific problem. But what we are at risk of losing is the diversity that makes Montreal great.”

Herrera says Montreal’s population is predominately made up of young people—students and young families who are more likely to be affected by housing issues.

According to the youth council, the metropolitan region has reached its lowest vacancy rate in 15 years at 1.5 per cent, but sale prices for all properties in the city have increased by 7.2 per cent between 2019 and 2020.

This tightening in the housing markets is having a particular effect on young households.

“One of the subgroups of young people who have been disproportionality affected by the housing crisis are young immigrants or second-generation immigrants that are victims of systemic discrimination in the context of the housing market,” said Herrera.

“These problems are really complex, and it’s multifaceted. There’s not one culprit to this entire housing crisis. I think it’s many, many factors like AirBnB, of course, gentrification, the more students coming in,” said Laurin.

The committee has submitted an official report with recommendations to the city which they claim will help Montreal maintain affordable housing for all for generations to come.

“We also recommend that the city of Montreal put in place a rental registry to ensure tenants are not victims of abusive increases in rent because obviously there’s a problem of symmetry of power in the relationship between tenants and landlords,” said Herrera.

“It will be harder and harder to find a rental, like an apartment, but also, like, when I’ll be older and will want to buy a house, I think that’s going to be something completely like insane,” said Laurin.