Three quarters of low-rent housing (HLM) in Montreal are in poor or very poor condition, the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) revealed on Thursday.
The condition of the buildings has deteriorated rapidly over the past year.
” The park [de HLM] suffered from under-investment by governments for many years,” said Danielle Cécile, Executive Director of the OMHM. Mme Cécile testified before the Finance Commission of the City of Montreal. “We have a good part of our park which is really, really — we’re not exaggerating — in poor condition. »
According to OMHM documentation, 34% of HLM buildings in Montreal are in “poor condition” and 41% are in “very poor condition”, for a total of 75%. The OMHM manages 838 HLM buildings, which have a total of more than 20,000 apartments.
The situation has deteriorated compared to last year, when 66% of OMHM HLMs were considered to be in “poor” or “very poor” condition.
A light at the end of the tunnel, according to Mme Cécile: a check for 94 million announced by Quebec last year for the rehabilitation of HLM. “It’s a good step forward. It allowed us to direct this money to our barricaded accommodation, said the official. Honestly, next year I think you’re going to see changes in the state of our park. »