Solidarity urges the Legault government to better protect senior tenants against evictions and housing repossessions, which “are increasing” according to them.
Updated yesterday at 4:16 p.m.
Québec solidaire (QS) proposes to improve the protections currently provided for in the Civil Code, and adopted in 2016 under the initiative of former MP Françoise David.
“Today, we realize that this law must be more accessible, more open, and it must protect more seniors because the housing crisis has deepened,” argued the door- word of the party, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Wednesday at a press conference in Montreal.
A bill, presented last week by MP Andrés Fontecilla, suggests expanding the three conditions that must be met to prohibit the repossession of a dwelling occupied by an elderly person.
This is to prevent a tenant over the age of 65, living in his dwelling for at least five years and having an income below a certain threshold, from being thrown out. Some exceptions would still remain in place.
At present, the law provides for a minimum age of 70 years and the number of years concerning the occupation of the dwelling is 10 years. The tenant must also have an income equal to or less than the maximum income allowing him to be eligible for low-rental housing.
QS proposes to increase the maximum income of this last condition.
The political formation wants the adoption of the bill before the end of the current parliamentary session in June.
“Our bill is an outstretched hand to the CAQ government to concretely protect seniors,” said Mr. Fontecilla. There are only a few weeks left in the parliamentary session, enough time to study a fairly short, fairly succinct bill and pass it before the summer. »
In accordance with the transformations proposed by his former colleague, Mr.me David invited François Legault to vote in favor of the bill, just like when he passed the provisions in 2016 when he sat in opposition.
“If you evict an elderly person from their housing in their neighborhood, you probably make them lose all their social network, all their business friends, their neighbors who took care of them,” she told the conference. press release, which was held in front of the private residence for seniors (RPA) Mont-Carmel.
Prohibit the conversion of RPAs
The approximately 200 occupants of the establishment on boulevard René-Lévesque Est are threatened with having to pack up or agree to no longer live in RPA. The owner wants to convert the building into a “regular” rental complex, and thus withdraw by August the services that are attached to the status of a residence for seniors, such as a nurse present 24 hours a day and emergency bells.
Constance Vaudrin, tenant at the Mont-Carmel residence, does not meet one of the three conditions to avoid eviction, namely the fact of living in her unit for less than ten years.
Even if the new provisions come into force, the owner has the possibility of changing the vocation of the RPA, points out Mr.me Vaudrin, who accompanied the supportive deputies.
“What I want the most is that we prohibit the change of vocation of an RPA that is sold, because even if we are not ousted, we will not have the services, the necessary things, what brings us together,” she commented.
This winter, QS called on the government to legislate so that no more RPA suffer the fate of the Mont-Carmel residence.
Legal proceedings are underway to block the owner’s project. A committee of residents has formed to save the RPA. He hopes to obtain a stay of the court to maintain the services the time of the legal proceedings, explained Mme Vaudrin.
Nearly sixty tenants of the residence also filed a complaint with the Administrative Housing Tribunal.
The Regrouping of Housing Committees and Tenant Associations of Quebec (RCLALQ) welcomes QS’s proposal to broaden the conditions, but considers that it does not go far enough.
He advocates a ban on evictions and a moratorium on housing repossessions.
“With these legislative amendments, senior tenants risk being increasingly discriminated against in access to housing by landlords who have the big end of the stick with the shortage of rental housing,” reacted the RCLALQ. in a written statement.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchanges and The Canadian Press for the news.