A Quebec housing advocacy group says it is concerned there will be a record number of households without a place to live as of July 1 move-in day in the province.
“On the eve of July 1, in Quebec, we counted 750 families of tenants who have not found housing,” Veronique Laflamme, spokeswoman for the Front d’action populaire en reamenagement urbain (FRAPRU), said in an interview.
That estimate is based on applications for help received by municipal housing offices in the province, Laflamme said, and could change if families find housing in the meantime.
The number is much higher than the 420 renter households that were homeless in the same period last year, he said.
She said the number of households calling a housing assistance service this year also rose to 3,500, up from 2,000 the year before.
In Montreal on Friday, city staff were helping 107 households and “they had not yet found a permanent solution,” the city’s communication department said in an email. Among those “some have been able to negotiate a short-term lease extension, while others will be able to be housed by relatives.”
The city said it can temporarily house everyone in need.
According to Laflamme, “these numbers are the tip of the iceberg of the housing crisis” in Quebec. She said more families are living in substandard housing, housing that is too small for their needs, or housing that is too expensive.
According to the most recent annual report from the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation, released last February, about 30 Quebec municipalities have vacancy rates below one percent.
In the Montreal region, the vacancy rate is higher, at 3 percent.
On Wednesday, Quebec announced that it will increase a financial assistance program for low-income households starting October 1.
The government also said it would spend $2 million as part of “Operation July 1” to help people find housing and provide temporary housing and furniture storage for people who can’t find a place to live.
“There is absolutely no reason for people to sleep rough tonight if those people call the emergency teams at our housing offices,” Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Andree Laforest said in an email, adding that the government has set aside a record amount of money to provide “immediate assistance to tenants in need.”
However, Laflamme said the government is not getting to the root of the problem. His group would like the Quebec government to crack down on property speculation and evictions that take advantage of gray areas in the province’s housing laws.
According to the province’s housing department, more than 8,000 “social and affordable” homes have been built or are under construction since 2018.
The city of Montreal said it is waiting for Quebec and Ottawa to reach a financing agreement that would allow it to build or renovate 6,000 social housing units.
While the Quebec government hasn’t set a start date for residential leases since the 1970s, the vast majority start on July 1. The practice began with a 1750 law that established May 1 as the start date for residential tenancies, a government move. of what was then New France to protect tenants from being evicted during the winter.
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