Housing advocacy groups say Quebec abandoned low-income tenants in latest budget
Posted March 23, 2023 10:03 am.
Montreal housing advocates say Quebec’s new budget falls short of guaranteeing sufficient funds for social and affordable housing. They say the need for adequate funding and the immediate construction of social housing is extremely urgent.
“It’s ignoring the needs, it’s ignoring the housing crisis and its just going to contribute to the situation worsening,” says Catherine Lussier, a community organizer with FRAPRU, a housing advocacy group.
Amy Darwish, a community organizer with a Parc-Extension housing committee, agrees.
“1,500 new social housing units are being framed as so-called affordable housing,” she says. “We have no idea what percentage of this will actually be social housing. And moreover, and even more worrisome is they’re insisting that a third of those units be developed by the private sector. We see that as a very worrisome creeping privatization of social housing.”
Lussier says the lack of provincial money for more housing will hit low-income earners the most.
“Around 60 per cent of the population are actually tenants in Montreal,” she says. “There’s a lot of low-income people, around 24,000 people on the list. Obviously there is a problem and we’ve seen it get worse. Homelessness is increasing.”
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Vulnerable tenants most at risk
Advocates say landlords are taking advantage of the current situation and vulnerable tenants are being forced out of there homes.
“We have been flooded with calls from tenants who have been getting abusive rent increases,” says Darwish. “In many instances, landlords are taking advantage of the pretext of inflation and rising rents to propose very abusive rent hikes, often far above and beyond what would be allowed for by the housing tribunal. Many tenants are worried how they’re going to make ends meet over the coming months.”
Lussier says evictions are on the rise.
“All these tenants or getting evicted,” she says. “With rent increases, they’re not going to be able to afford living there and they might end up homeless.”
Darwish sees the Quebec budget as the Legault government having decided to abandon low-income tenants.
Advocates say the province needs to make housing a top priority.
“We need these social housing units,” says Darwish. “We’ve been seeing many, many tenants over the past few months who have been very, very hard hit by rent increases. What this shows us is that we absolutely need an alternative to the private market. It’s unacceptable that they’re going to be spending $1.7 billion a year in tax cuts that could have built 10,000 units of social housing. It’s not a question of resources. It is a question of priorities.”
