Organizations want Quebec to take action on housing crisis affecting racialized immigrant women

As part of the 12 Days of Action against Violence towards Women, the Réseau d’action pour l’égalité des femmes immigrées et racisées du Québec (RAFIQ), in collaboration with the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), held a press conference on Monday morning highlighting the housing crisis affecting racialized and immigrant women.

The organizations are calling for immediate and concrete action from the Quebec government to protect these women and guarantee their fundamental right to decent housing.

“The housing crisis in Quebec is extremely violent for immigrant and racialized women,” said Safi Nsiempba, spokesperson for the RAFIQ Committee to Combat Discrimination and Racism, in a press release. “It is all the more complicated because immigrant women do not necessarily know their rights and recourses.”

“This contributes to increased social isolation.”

According to RAFIQ and FRAPRU, immigrant and racialized women who are marginalized by linguistic, economic and/or social barriers, are more at risk of living in housing that is in poor condition, overcrowded, far from their networks or experiencing residential instability.

The organizations added that the women are also overexposed to discrimination at “every stage of their rental journey.”

“Because they often have no choice but to live in housing that is too expensive, they find themselves forced to cut back on their basic needs, such as eating, clothing, and even healthcare,” said Nsiempba. “By depriving these women of equitable access to decent housing, the private market reproduces and amplifies inequalities, endangering their safety, their health, and their fundamental right to live with dignity.”

The housing crisis, also affects the health and social, emotional and psychological development of their children, said the organizations.

“Moving and changing schools are particularly traumatic, with repercussions on their development and health,” said Nsiempba. “Limited access to health care, aggravated by isolation and systemic discrimination, amplifies the consequences on their overall well-being.”

For those who are also victims to domestic violence, the RAFIQ and FRAPRU explained that the lack of adequate housing that meets their ability to pay makes it extremely difficult to leave their homes.

“It is urgent to recognize these issues as priorities,” said Nsiempba.

For RAFIQ and FRAPRU, explaining the housing crisis through immigration is a communication strategy by the Legault government to divert attention from its responsibilities.

“Not only is the analysis lacking in rigor, it is dangerous,” said Stéphanie Barahona, community organizer at FRAPRU. “The housing crisis is primarily linked to the deficit in the construction of social housing over the past 30 years, to the weak supervision of the private rental market and to the financialization of housing. It is all the more scandalous to accuse immigrants since they are among the most poorly housed in Quebec.”

“Instead of looking for false culprits,” she added in the release. “The government should put in place the necessary measures to ensure everyone’s right to housing. It is its responsibility.”

Immediate actions are being requested by the RAFIQ and FRAPRU.

The organizations are calling on Quebec to:

• Double the share of social housing in the rental stock within 15 years, to meet the most urgent needs, particularly those of women who are victims of domestic violence. To do this, the organizations said that the next Quebec budget must provide for investments to build at least 10,000 social housing units per year, through a adequately funded program.
  
• Amend its low-rent housing allocation regulations to allow access to people with irregular or precarious immigration status.
  
• Take responsibility and have the means to prosecute landlords who are guilty of discrimination in the rental of housing. The remedies available to tenants must also be simplified and deadlines shortened.
  
• Promote information for immigrants about their rights, through public information campaigns reminding them of the obligations of landlords and the rights and remedies of tenants.