The gentrification of the Pointe-Saint-Charles district, stimulated by a demographic and real estate boom, is not going smoothly for the long-time residents of this area of southwestern Montreal. They are confronted with inequalities and a growing cost of living.
Stéphane Defoy is a community organizer at the Clinique communautaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles. However, he does not live in this district, which he knows inside out. “I don’t have the means”, despite an “adequate” salary, he confides, while he offers us a guided tour in his car of this former working-class sector, surrounded by railway tracks.
In the streets perpendicular to Wellington Street, where a few chic cafes have emerged in recent years alongside a craft beer convenience store, Mr. Defoy shows us one after another various rental housing duplexes that have been converted in recent years in overpriced single-family homes—at least for the middle class—or even condominiums for sale.
Evidence also confirms the erosion of the rental stock in this district, which experienced a demographic growth of 7.1% between 2011 and 2016, to reach nearly 15,000 inhabitants, according to data from Statistics Canada. A report published last month by the Regroupement Information Logement (RIL) and Action-Gardien, the Pointe-Saint-Charles Community Development Corporation, reports the withdrawal of at least 136 rental units from the private market since the beginning of the 2000s in this area.
Forced to leave
Rents, for their part, are rising sharply, in a context of rising property values. Many tenants find themselves forced to leave the neighborhood they love, either for financial reasons or following an eviction, evoke several residents and organizations in the area.
“Personally, I know a lot of people who lived [à Pointe-Saint-Charles] before and who can no longer afford to live here”, drops Geneviève Lambert-Pilotte. The single-parent mother, who grew up in this neighborhood, has seen it transform over the years with the emergence of many refined businesses and dog grooming salons, particularly on rue du Centre, the main artery of the piece.
“It’s not just for the people who leave that gentrification happens, it’s also for the people who stay. They no longer feel at home in their neighborhood,” which adapts to a more affluent clientele, sighs the coordinator of the Pointe-Saint-Charles Popular Education Hub, Nicolas Delisle-L’Heureux.
Over the years, the neighborhood has also developed a wide range of community and local services, the result of long popular mobilization. However, community premises are threatened with closure due to real estate speculation, as are rooming houses, while a Caisse populaire and a post office have notably been relocated over the years. “It’s a significant effect of the gentrification of the neighborhood,” says Stéphane Defoy, who notes that several new businesses “do not meet the needs” of the less well-off.
“When people arrive, they say ‘wow, it’s a great neighborhood, there are lots of things’. But all the people who were there before had to leave. It’s like a big move, a big move, “sighs Mme Lambert-Pilotte, also responsible for communications at the neighborhood community clinic.
Lack of social housing
For low-income households clinging to this neighborhood, where average incomes have skyrocketed in places, the option of turning to social housing remains, but patience is required. “My co-op is full and the waiting list is 10 to 15 years old to get a place,” points out Kim Dumont, who has been living in a housing co-op for twenty years with her husband and children. children. “At the price I’m paying, I’m sure I’ll never leave there,” says the lady, who “couldn’t [se] allow”, otherwise, to live in this neighborhood.
“However, I have always lived here,” sighs the one who is an administrative officer in human resources at the Clinique communautaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles.
At a time when the social housing stock has been struggling to increase for several years in this district, the councilor for the district of Pointe-Saint-Charles, Craig Sauvé, returns the ball to Quebec. “I have the impression that there is zero interest on the part of the Government of Quebec to act […] It’s a shame, ”sighs the independent elected representative.
“There is a lot of discontent” in front of the lack of social housing in the neighborhood, confirms Mr. Defoy, while pointing the finger at the real estate complexes that are sprouting visibly along the Lachine Canal.
However, “it’s not enough to have a place in housing. You can have a place in an HLM and no longer feel at home in your neighborhood, ”underlines the coordinator of Action-Gardien, Karine Triollet. She thus notes the importance of “protecting certain buildings from speculation” by reserving them for community groups.
The borough is also working with the City to buy land and reserve it for social housing projects and community services. Recent amendments to the Sud-Ouest zoning by-law have also reduced the possibilities of dividing or subdividing rental units in this sector to a minimum, recalls Mr. Sauvé.
“I think the borough is putting a lot of effort into the means we have, which are very limited,” continues the elected official.