Report calls for action on housing crisis ahead of Quebec’s July 1 moving day

A new report from the group from the group SEIZE (Solidarity Economy Incubator for Zero Emissions), based out of Montreal’s Concordia University, was released Wednesday highlighting the demands of 59 Canadian organizations in terms of combating the shortage of affordable housing.

With the rising costs and availability for housing in Montreal, the annual July 1 moving day poses yet another challenge for those on the front lines of this crisis, as many people are often left homeless during that time.

Maggie Chittspattio of the non-profit day shelter Resilience Montréal, echoed the cry for more housing, saying she’s seen more people end up in the streets after stories of landlords continuously increasing the rent, including the elderly. “It’s sad to say, most of them just end up dying,” she said.

“I’m expecting to have a lot of people coming into our shelter,” she added.

“It’s sad to see people coming in there when they’re very well dressed, and they had a job, they had a home, they’ve been living over 20 years in an apartment and they come out and say they got kicked out,” said Chittspattio.

At a press conference Wednesday Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said The Montreal Municipal Housing Office (OMHM) is accompanying 250 people who need to move and don’t have a place lined up, doubling the amount from last year. The OMHM helps those people find housing, stores their belongings and puts them up in hotels temporarily.

“Especially for elders I think it’s it shows that something that is wrong,” Plante said. “Elders shouldn’t be looking for a place to stay, like even in the shelters we see much more people elder homeless people and to me this is a big fail,” she said.

This year, the City had increased their funding for emergency accommodation to $3.5 million while in in 2023, the costs amounted to $2.95 million.

The Canadian groups surveyed say the solution to the housing crisis as having a massive investment in social housing across specifically nonprofit housing such as public housing or cooperatives. 

“Government policy driven by power of investment capital” was cited as a large factor in this “tragic role in the disappearance of affordable options and skyrocketing rents,” the report reads.

During a press conference held by SEIZE on Wednesday, community activists and organizations shared their experiences on the frontlines of the housing crisis, which has left thousands facing uncertainty in their access to a home.

”I think it’s a huge opportunity for any any political party [who] wants to step into there and say, ‘okay, we’re actually going to stand with you,'” said Dru Oja Jay, of CUTV Montreal and SEIZE. “That is what created affordable housing in the past, it’s probably the only thing that will free affordable housing in the future,” Jay said. 

Mostafa Henaway, community organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre, an organization aimed at improving living and working conditions for immigrants in their places of work, said conservatives and liberals tend to use International student and asylum seekers as a scapegoat for the housing crisis.

Henaway also said most international students will no longer have access to post graduate work permits.

” [So] they’ll be thrown out of this country that we’ve taken thousands of dollars of them they subsidize our secondary education system, and now we’re going to throw them out the door as a way to say what we’re dealing with the housing crisis,” he said.

Using Shawinigan, Que. as an example, Henaway says the city is among the least diverse places in Canada with the lowest immigration rates in all of the country, yet they too are experiencing a housing crisis.

Plante said they have to be more creative and look at all the options with the power and financial resources they have as this subject is a “team effort.”

“I will not take responsibility for under financing of social housing, especially for the homeless community in the last three years, since it is the responsibility within the mandate of the government,” said Plante.

“Hopefully, our voices will be heard,” Chittspattio said.