Housing crisis | “I try to be strong in front of my daughter”

At least 750 households in Quebec are at risk of being homeless on July 1

Lila Dussault
The Press

“I never thought I would find myself in this situation,” says Yanick Midouin. The mother of a single-parent family from Saint-Rémi, in Montérégie, had still not found a place to relocate with her teenage daughter, two days before the 1^er July. Like at least 750 households across the province, according to FRAPRU. The Press spoke to two people struggling with this problem.

Life was going to be light for Yanick Midouin, a 52-year-old woman, who had planned to move in with her daughter’s father on the 1^er July, in Montérégie. An unexpected breakup, a month before the move, left her heart in pieces. This was without taking into account the difficulty — even the impossibility — of finding affordable housing in his region.

“I looked at the prices, and they were all constructions at $1,200, $1,300, $1,400 per month, denounces M^me Midouin at the end of the line. That doesn’t make sense! »

The single mother of a 15-year-old daughter was paying $730 for her old house. Self-employed in the insurance field, with an annual salary hovering around $30,000 per year, she estimates that with a rent of more than $1,000, “it would be very difficult to make ends meet”.

That didn’t stop her from looking, trying, knocking on every door (the City of Saint-Rémi, its deputy, the Municipal Housing Office), nothing worked. Two days before the 1^er July, she still doesn’t know where she and her daughter will meet.

“I can’t afford to go to a hotel,” she breathes, her voice broken. I try to be strong in front of my daughter, I don’t want to show her anything. I do not have a choice. »

750 households still looking for housing in Quebec

On Wednesday, about 750 households accompanied by emergency services from municipalities across the province were still looking for housing and risked finding themselves homeless, said Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Popular Action Front in Redevelopment. urban (FRAPRU).

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, the pale reflection of reality,” adds Ms.^me The flame. There are households that have found a lease, but have had to change neighborhoods, have found themselves in substandard housing, or are staying with family or friends. »

It is also a major jump from last year, when 440 households found themselves in the same situation on the 1^er July.

The number of requests for emergency aid has also exploded across the province, observes M^me Laflamme: “The numbers are up everywhere, there are cities where it has even doubled. »

On the straw at 70

“I had friends who looked for me, I looked in the newspapers or on the internet: there was nothing, says Nicole Desgreniers. Or there was housing, yes, new construction, business at $1,400 a month. I do not have the means. »

The 70-year-old lady, a resident of Estrie for decades, was shown the door of her accommodation in Magog this spring, because of her dog. But for the first time in his life, finding a new home turned out to be much more difficult than expected.

For two years, the lack of housing in the region has also led to a significant increase in prices. “Households find themselves struggling with scarcity and real estate speculation,” says Ms.^me The flame. And not just in big cities. We have seen renovation operations, buyouts of affordable rooming houses, in cities like Trois-Rivières and Sept-Îles. »

Nicole Desgreniers finally had to leave Estrie to move into a home belonging to a friend of her son in Sainte-Thérèse, in the Laurentians. The building being for sale, it is a temporary solution, which she still pays $1,100 per month.

“I have worked all my life and I find myself at a respectable age in a situation where I face unbridled capitalism, analyzes M^me Desgreniers. The owners have the big end of the stick, and they exaggerate! »

Both FRAPRU and the province’s tenant assistance services were anticipating a 1^er particularly difficult July. Unfortunately, admits M^me Laflamme, “the situation that we feared around the period of the moves turns out”.