Affordable Housing | Despite new delays, the CAQ remains optimistic

The social and affordable housing projects of the new CAQ program are slow to be built, despite what it promised in 2022. We discussed it with the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, who remains optimistic for the ‘future.

In the midst of a housing crisis, the Legault government launched a new subsidized social and affordable housing program, replacing AccèsLogis.

With its new Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), the government promised that approved projects would begin to be built within 12 months. It announced 39 affordable housing projects in June 2022.

We are 22 months later.

Of the first 39 PHAQ projects, only 9 are under construction. That’s 341 affordable housing units out of 1,607, or 21% of the units.

Thirty projects (1,266 units) are still in the planning phase (“in development”), that is to say, the first shoveling of the ground has not yet taken place.

None of the 39 projects have yet been delivered. It takes at least a year for construction.

The figures don’t lie, and I conclude that the first vintage of PHAQ is unfortunately a failure.

I discussed it with the Minister responsible for Housing in Quebec, who tempers my verdict. She explains that the projects will still be ready to receive tenants within three years (by June 2025). And above all, she promises that things will go faster from now on. In recent months, Quebec has announced two new PHAQ vintages, for a total of 3,500 units.

“As the projects (for the June 2022 vintage) were not already at an optimal level of maturity, it took more time,” explains Minister Duranceau. When I arrived, I said: “the projects that pass the test are because they emerge quickly”. This is more reflected in (the new vintages of) PHAQ. »

During the 2000s, Quebec had a fairly effective social and affordable housing program. Approximately 1,900 units of affordable housing were built per year, with only 10 months of planning time before construction.^⁠1.

For the first PHAQ vintage in 2022, this planning period is now 19 months^⁠2. True, the labor shortage complicates things. But we must face the facts: PHAQ is not faster than AccèsLogis in its heyday.

In 2009, the Charest government torpedoed AccèsLogis by stopping adjusting subsidies to inflation. The Couillard government continued this harmful decision. Result: financial packages no longer reflected real construction costs, and underfunded projects were not built in practice. In 2018, there were 15,000 units “blocked” in the system. From 2018 to 2022, the Legault government used its social housing funds to “unfreeze” part of these 15,000 units.

Then, in 2022, the CAQ replaced AccèsLogis with the PHAQ for new projects. She promised the planning would take less than 12 months. Then, this promise increased to 18 months. However, after this deadline, 30 of the 39 projects are still in planning.

Minister Duranceau nevertheless remains optimistic for the future. In recent months, Quebec has corrected certain flaws in the PHAQ to make it “more flexible” and “more fluid,” according to her. Among other things, we added start-up costs from the start of the project.

Quebec announced two other waves of affordable housing projects: 999 units in December, then 2,574 units in February. We are clearly picking up the pace. Minister Duranceau is hopeful that these 3,500 units will break ground before 18 months, and even before 12 months for many of them. “The most important criterion (for choosing new projects) is that the first shovelful of ground be in 2024,” she says.

For the 30 projects (1,266 units) from June 2022 which are still not under construction, Quebec will give an extension of a few months to the maximum number of projects possible. But for some projects that are not advanced enough, this will be the end. “We are no longer letting projects survive that are not ready to go,” said Minister Duranceau. We take the money and redistribute it to projects that are more ready. That’s a revolution. »

With the housing crisis worsening, we must hope that the PHAQ (finally) takes off and that construction times are reduced.

Fortunately, all is not gloomy in the results of social and affordable housing in Quebec. In a few days, I will tell you about another CAQ initiative whose results are promising.

1. Average time for AccèsLogis between 2005 and 2008.

2. The projects were announced in June 2022, but it took three months for the contracts to be finalized. So for the government, the clock really started in September 2022. That makes 19 months instead of 22 months.

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