An elderly tenant at risk of homelessness is fighting in the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) to try to stop the demolition of a building that real estate giant Mondev wants to replace with an apartment tower. The building is located opposite Place Émilie-Gamelin, in downtown Montreal.
For years, Carla White lived “a nightmare”, wandering from one homeless shelter in the metropolis to another, unable to access housing commensurate with her limited financial means. “I slept on the sidewalk because I had nowhere else to go,” she told Duty during a long interview.
In 2013, the Montrealer finally found a studio on Saint-Hubert Street, near the intersection of Sainte-Catherine Street East, which she has occupied ever since. His monthly rent is currently $400 per month. The condition of her accommodation is far from optimal, but it is probably the only apartment she can afford, notes the elderly lady.
This is why she has been fighting for several years to keep it.
Avoid the street
In 2019, the limited partnership that owns this 12-unit building – where only one tenant remains to this day, the others having left the premises in recent years – opened a file before the TAL against Carla White. The company, which is associated with the leaders of Mondev, had then made a request for repossession of housing to house one of its managers, according to court documents. The owner, however, withdrew before a hearing was held before the TAL, which was due to take place in October of that year.
This largely boarded up building is now doomed to disappear to make way for a Mondev real estate project planned in front of Place Émilie-Gamelin, which is frequented by many homeless people in the city center.
However, the low-income tenant claims that no alternative accommodation has been offered to her by the developer, who nevertheless owns many residential buildings in the city center. She also considers that the financial compensation offered to her in exchange for leaving the premises is insufficient.
Carla White thus opened a file before the TAL last November to oppose the demolition of the building where she lives. A hearing in this case is scheduled for next Tuesday in Montreal.
“Mondev did not offer me an apartment, while they are in the condo industry,” laments the tenant, who fears finding herself back on the street if she is evicted. “Where am I going to go? Will I have to go back to a homeless shelter? It’s horribly sad. »
“Our intentions are good”
A landlord who evicts one of his tenants must legally give him the equivalent of three months’ rent and reimburse him for the costs of his move. “Our last offer was above 10 times what the law provides,” says the Duty Mondev Co-Chair Michael Owen. However, this “very reasonable” offer was refused by Ms.me White, he says.
“Our intentions are good. We are not in the business renovations”, underlines the promoter, who affirms that he rather wants to contribute to the embellishment of this sector where vacant commercial premises follow one another. “We believe there are a lot of opportunities [dans les environs]. It’s going to take a project like ours, I think, to get the ball rolling in the right direction. »
Mondev will also present in the coming weeks a new version of the real estate project it wishes to carry out in front of the Berri-UQAM metro station, right next to the Archambault store, which will soon be closing its doors.
Its initial version, presented to the Ville-Marie borough in the winter of 2020, included the construction of an 18-storey tower totaling 258 rental units in front of Place Émilie-Gamelin, as well as another of similar size to east of the intersection of rue Sainte-Catherine Est and rue Saint-Hubert, for a total of 481 units.
The duty learned, however, that the real estate project would no longer include this second tower: it will only keep the one planned on the western site of the project, just opposite Place Émilie-Gamelin, where a few restaurants and shops – currently closed – could be demolished. The number of dwellings would be “roughly half” of the number initially indicated, at least initially, confirms Michael Owen.
“Construction costs have increased dramatically over the past few years, and interest rates have increased significantly. The economic context has completely changed since we started this file,” he explains to justify the changes made to this project intended for a varied clientele. “We are targeting young students, young professionals, people who want to live downtown,” says Mr. Owen.
This real estate project will also be subject to the Regulations for a mixed metropolis of the City of Montreal, which obliges developers to contribute to the creation of social and affordable housing, indicates the head of urban planning on the executive committee and councilor in Ville- Marie, Robert Beaudry.
The precise form that this contribution will take, however, will only be determined after “the official filing” of the new version of the real estate project, which will again be analyzed by the borough’s planning advisory committee, indicates the elected representative of Project Montreal. “Our wish, as an administration, is really to see this sector revitalized, and this is the kind of project that can serve as a spark,” adds Mr. Beaudry. But he has to fit in well with his environment. »