Projet Montréal aims to shield rooming houses from real estate speculation

Projet Montréal is proposing new measures to protect rooming houses across the city by restricting their conversion and removing them from private market.

Leader of Projet Montréal, Luc Rabouin, says the city could buy back buildings to preserve affordable housing and prevent investor-drive speculation.

And he’s promising to do so if elected come November 2.

Projet Montréal says the announcement is in lined with their vision of “housing everyone” by intervening at every stage of the housing ladder — from emergency shelter to homeownership — to ensure that everyone, regardless of their situation, can find a safe, stable and sustainable roof over their heads, within their means. 

The organization wants to especially aid people with low incomes, they want to ensure vulnerable people can obtain affordable prices.

Since 2020, eight boroughs1 led by Projet Montréal have already banned the conversion of rooming houses.

“Too many Montrealers are worried about not being able to stay in their apartments and about ending up on the street, especially those who live in rooming houses,” said Luc Rabouin, leader of Projet Montréal. “These homes are often the last safety net before the street and one of the crucial steps to exit homelessness. Protecting them means protecting and reassuring the most vulnerable people and offering them an alternative. Under Projet Montréal, the City has already acted, but we must go further to ensure that no borough turns its back on these essential housings.”

Projet Montréal proposes to ban the conversion of rooming houses everywhere in Montreal, so that this protection applies everywhere and not only in the boroughs run by the party. They aim to buy and resell rooming houses throughout Montreal to NPOs.

Projet Montréal says they will continue to use the right of first refusal, allowing the City to buy back buildings, including rooming houses, before they pass into the hands of private developers.

Nine buildings, representing 138 rooms, have already been protected through this mechanism. These measures will be deployed in the first year of the next mandate.

Projet Montréal states their objective is to protect as many rooms as possible, consolidate threatened stock and give people in vulnerable situations the security of a roof.