Quebec housing advocate group protesting rent increase

Despite the rain and snow on Wednesday, Montreal residents still came out to demand measures to ensure the right to housing as they marked Tenant’s Day in Quebec.

The Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenants Associations of Quebec (RCLALQ), who organized the demonstration, is calling for an immediate rent freeze, the implementation of real rent control, measures to counter fraudulent evictions and the resignation of Quebec Housing Minister, France-Élaine Duranceau.

“You can see more and more homeless people, but you can also see a lot of people who are living in dwellings that are totally inappropriate. Either it’s totally inappropriate because it’s too small, because it’s a shady place, or because they are paying way too much,” said Cédric Dussault, spokesperson of the RCLALQ.

Joseph Wasserman lives in building for people aged 55 and older. Wasserman along with his neighbours, is looking at a potential rent increase. 

“This year they want to raise the rent between 6.8 and 15 per cent,” said Wasserman.

Adding, “We have no way of paying the rent. We can’t afford it.”

Wasserman is calling on the provincial government to help with his situation,

“If they can freeze at the Régie du logement say four or five per cent for all the renters in Montreal and Quebec in all the regions,” said Wasserman.

“There’s not enough measures to protect tenants at this point,” said Lina, a tenants’ rights activist.

“For example, in my building, there’s two vacant units out of 12 that just are vacant for no reason. I think the landlord is waiting a year to jack up the prices as much as he wants. And there’s nothing stopping him from doing that. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis, there’s two empty units. For what?” said Lina.

According to a new report from Urbanation and Rentals.ca, rent growth remained hot in Montreal during March, as asking rents for apartments increased 0.8 per cent month-over-month and 9.3 per cent year-over-year to reach a record-high average of $2,051.

Compared to March 2020, average asking rents in Canada increased by a total of 21 per cent, equal to an average annual increase of just over 5 per cent during the latest four-year period.

On Tuesday, Duranceau announced that Quebec would provide $7.8 million to municipalities and housing offices in different regions.

These contributions will make it possible to set up housing assistance services and assist households who pay for temporary accommodation or storage and transportation.

The government also says it has made the ‘Rent Supplement Program’ more flexible so that people on the waiting list have quicker access to subsidized housing.

“The announcement is basically a copy and paste of what was done last year,” said Dussault.

“It’s not enough.”

Since 2013, the RCLALQ held protests across the province on April 24 marking the day as “Tenant’s Day.”