In Rimouski, students have to start their semester at the motel, women resign themselves to prostitution to find accommodation, others go back to live with the violent spouse they fled because they couldn’t find a home for them. and their children. The housing shortage is hitting eastern Quebec hard. Many are sounding the alarm.
There are indeed, here and there, a few “For rent” signs hung on the facades and balconies of Rimouski. So many mirages in a real estate desert. “It’s not complicated: apartments, there are none”, summarizes Guy Labonté, coordinator of the Bas-Saint-Laurent Housing Committee.
The most recent data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) prove him right. In Rimouski, the vacancy rate, already critical last year at 0.9%, has just tumbled to 0.2% – the fourth lowest in Quebec.
Social evils proliferate in the shadow of this statistic and The duty collected, in the field, a whole string of examples to recite. “Crisis”, “wind of panic”, “spiral that does not stop”: in Rimouski, words often associated with stock market crashes are used to describe the housing shortage, which affects the entire economic and social ecosystem of the town. “We have opportunities that we will not be able to achieve, deplores Mayor Guy Caron, until we solve the main problem: the housing shortage. »
Price explosion
“It’s small,” laments Audrey Barriault, looking over her four and a half with her little Lucas, four months, in her arms. Between the boots, the toys and the tomcat in the entrance is a pile of crates full of items to donate. Space is lacking: possessions have to be sacrificed so as not to step on each other’s toes.
Audrey, 26, lives with her husband, Gabriel Proulx, a year older, and their two children. The young couple moved to Rimouski in July to be closer to UQAR, where Gabriel is starting to study civil engineering.
They found their four and a half of pain and misery. A bit out of spite, too: when they arrived, they first had to get rid of the ants. Since then, they have been looking for larger accommodation and have found nothing.
“I saw a six and a half available,” says Gabriel. “For the rest of us, it would really be the fun, adds Audrey. We have two small children, we never have room. »
Their dream ends where the prize begins. “It was $1,800,” sighs the student father. “Who pays that in life to rent? In Rimouski? asks Audrey, taken aback — and resigned to living for another year in a home where her family is cramped.
Scarcity in Rimouski has caused rental prices to skyrocket. “I saw, last week, a three and a half unheated, unlit, at $850. If you’re not a couple with two salaries, you’re not doing well,” laments Véronique Collin, a worker for 14 years at the Répit du passer-by.
In this temporary accommodation center for men, the stays of clients drag on. “The duration of accommodation often reaches two, three, or even four months. Normally, it is between two weeks and 30 days. »
The men stay at the Respite, unable to find a roof elsewhere. The less fortunate are forced to sleep outside.
“There were five gentlemen who lived in parks because there were no places last summer, says Mme collin. We receive five or six requests for accommodation from the City a week, but we don’t have any beds. I’m not going to host people in my shed at -25 just to please the City, ”laments the speaker.
The reality is just as difficult at the Auberge du Coeur Le Transit, which receives young people getting back in the saddle after a difficult period. “For the past two years, young people have had difficulty finding housing,” explains the director general, Lynda Lepage. “They often end up in poorly maintained, unsanitary accommodation with bedbugs. »
“Sometimes they have no choice but to stay in buildings frequented by drug users, when they themselves come out of therapy and try to stop using,” adds Transit coordinator Sophie Groleau. .
homeless women
The housing shortage hits the most vulnerable women particularly hard. Without a home within reach of their purse, some find themselves forced to make tragic choices.
“When a dwelling is posted on social networks, within an hour there is a queue to visit,” notes Geneviève Lévesque, executive director of La Débrouille, an organization offering temporary shelter to women who leave a violent spouse.
Those who arrive alone at La Débrouille can still find an affordable two and a half. Mothers are often not so lucky. “Large accommodation for women with children, there are hardly any,” explains Ms.me Levesque. In such a context, some return to live with the violent partner they were fleeing.
“It breaks your heart, sometimes. Especially when they go back without really wanting to see it again, ”regrets the general manager.
Another sad corollary of the lack of housing in Rimouski: the emergence of a particular form of prostitution where women accept intimate relations with men for whom they feel no affection, just to obtain a place to sleep.
“It’s not a choice, clarifies Luc Jobin, general manager of En tout CAS, an organization that does street work. Is entrusting your child to the DPJ because you have no roof over your head? »
To remedy the misery, the community fabric of Rimouski has put in place last resort solutions. For example, paying for hotel rooms for those who have nowhere to stay.
“It’s patchwork,” laments Mr. Jobin. When he spoke with The duty, his organization had “placed four women in hotels, hostels, wherever we can” — in three days. “Once they’ve spent the night there, what do we do?” It’s a band-aid on a wooden leg. We relieve. That’s all. »