“The situation will get even worse”, says housing rights group

MONTREAL – Current statistics on the housing situation, already worrying, underestimate reality, argues FRAPRU, which believes the situation will get even worse.

On Tuesday, the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), published its 8th dossier on housing and poverty in Quebec, based on statistics from the 2021 census.

At the time of the 2021 census, there were 173,000 tenant households in Quebec in “core housing need”.

However, these 2021 statistics took into account household incomes temporarily inflated by COVID-19 benefits, the housing rights group points out. As a result, FRAPRU believes that housing affordability problems are underestimated.

FRAPRU notes, for example, that homeless people, “at least 10,000” registered at the last count in October 2022, should be added to this figure.

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Its spokesperson Véronique Laflamme points out that the vacancy rate in Quebec is only 1.7 per cent, “the lowest percentage in nearly 20 years”. And, 28 urban centers in Quebec have vacancy rates below 1 per cent.

The housing shortage has been accompanied by rising rents. FRAPRU notes an increase from $844 to $952 across Quebec. And, says available housing is more expensive: $1272 in the greater Montreal area, $1312 in the Quebec City region and $1450 in Gatineau.

As a result, the organization says they are seeing households spending more than 80 per cent of their income on housing.

“For these people the slightest unforeseen event – a broken fridge, a separation – can unfortunately lead to the loss of housing, to the street,” says Laflamme.

Seniors, single people, young people aged 15 to 24 and women are the categories most affected by the current crisis, notes the organization.

FRAPRU believes the situation will get worse, mainly because of “the speed at which rents are rising”, which doesn’t match the speed at which household incomes are increasing.

The housing rights group reports that “the needs are immense” and that governments are slow to implement their strategies and programs. Yet “homelessness costs more than social housing”, argued Laflamme.

She deplored the fact that Quebec is passing the buck to the municipalities, and that the federal government is supporting the construction of overpriced, far-from-affordable housing.

“One thing’s for sure: it can’t take much longer. Because we can see the dramatic consequences; you see them every day. It’s got to stop. emergency shelters are great, but they’re not permanent housing,” concluded Laflamme.

FRAPRU also announced a tour of Quebec’s regions and a visibility campaign to put pressure on the authorities to take action on housing.

-This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 26, 2023.