More than 2,500 seniors evicted from RPAs in Quebec

Posted January 10, 2024 10:24 am.
Last Updated January 10, 2024 10:34 am.
More than 2,500 seniors were evicted from their private seniors’ residences (RPAs) in Quebec within a year. This, according to a survey by the Association québécoise des retraités des secteurs public et parapublic (AQRP) made public on Wednesday.
There were 88 RPA closures between October 1, 2022 and September 1, 2023, throughout Quebec, according to the survey.
A quarter of the residents affected are in Greater Montreal. CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal recorded 148 tenant evictions, CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal 347, and CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal 160. In all, 607 tenants were evicted from their RPAs.
The CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de–l’Île-de-Montréal did not respond as to the number of closures in their regions.
The other quarter are in the Capitale-Nationale region, with nearly 607 evicted tenants.
“It is unacceptable that our vulnerable seniors, some of whom have health problems, should find themselves without housing. The Minister responsible for Housing must include a clause in her Bill 31 prohibiting evictions in private seniors’ residences,” maintains AQRP provincial president Paul-René Roy.
AQRP says the bill specifies that compensation to be paid in the event of eviction covers up to a maximum of 24 months, plus a sum to cover moving expenses. Currently, the indemnity is three months plus reasonable moving expenses.
According to the AQRP, the financial compensation proposed in Bill 31 reflects an alleged moral superiority on the part of the government, without demonstrating the good faith of these evictions. Rather, the Association sees this monetary compensation as a deceptive tactic by the Quebec government, making RPP residents bear the psychological after-effects of evictions in exchange for compensation.
“The evictions provided for in Bill 31 seem to be carried out in bad faith, in contradiction with what it claims. This legislative proposal is likely to have harmful consequences on the well-being of RPP residents, forcing them to move and exposing them to psychological after-effects such as the loss of a taste for life and the feeling of being uprooted,” points out Roy.
The AQRP is asking the Quebec Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, to introduce a specific clause in Bill 31. According to this clause, if RPA owners wish to convert these residences into standard rental units, they should do so in good faith. The clause would stipulate that the essential condition would be that this conversion be part of the Quebec Affordable Housing Program, in order to increase the supply of affordable housing in Quebec.
“The objective of this proposal is to enable seniors to remain in their homes, to age in place, without fear of eviction. To make this solution economically viable for the government, we suggest that assistance not take the form of a non-repayable subsidy, as provided for in the Affordable Housing Program, but rather that of a forgivable loan,” says Roy.