Accommodation search | “We have no choice but to stay”

(Montreal) Two weeks from 1^er July, the pressure mounts for Quebec tenants who are still looking for housing. Among them are several people who have resigned themselves to staying in an apartment that is too small or ill-suited to their needs, faced with the impossibility of finding affordable housing.

This is the case of Chloé, who wishes to conceal her surname for fear that her speaking out will harm her search for accommodation. “Leaving the apartment I’m in to find another is hell on earth,” she says straight away.

“The place where I am, I wouldn’t say it’s unsanitary, but it’s not the best of apartments. In the last two years, we have been treated to cockroaches, mice, ”she says.

Currently, Chloé spends $920 per month for her four and a half located in the Plateau-Mont-Royal district of Montreal, where she has lived for several years. While looking for a new apartment, she came up against rising rental prices.

“We have no choice but to stay, says the one who has visited several accommodations. Even if I put cash, either I have to put a lot, or what’s on the market, it’s not terrible. »

Delphine, a mother of three children aged 7 to 9, who does not want to reveal her surname for the same reason, is for her part forced to live in an apartment that is too small. The woman who separated a year ago then rented accommodation quickly.

“I decided in February-March to look for something bigger, because my children are in the same room, she explains on the phone. I did not understand, every time I made an appointment to visit, finally it was cancelled. I have not visited a single apartment. »

Delphine believes that many owners do not want children to live in their building.

The mother of the family also tried to apply in a housing cooperative, without success.

These cases of citizens forced to stay in housing that is not adapted to their needs are no strangers to the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU).

“We are hearing more and more such testimonies from families who are extremely worried about not being able to provide healthy housing, adequate housing for their children,” said FRAPRU spokesperson Véronique Laflamme in an interview. She specifies that family housing, with three bedrooms, is rare, but also “overpriced”.

“Not to mention the families who are discriminated against. Again this week, we had calls from families with three or four children, sometimes blended families, who as soon as they mention that they have four children, are told that the accommodation is not available, ”continues FRAPRU spokesperson.

According to M^me Laflamme, it would be “putting your head in the sand” to say that the solution to the housing crisis would be for tenants to stay in their current apartment.

“You have to see that many people have housing that is not decent, that is not adequate,” says Ms.^me The flame.

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) rental market report, published in January 2023, the housing vacancy rate in Montreal has fallen from 3.7% to 2.3%. And it is even lower when it comes to affordable housing. The vacancy rate for apartments with rents of around $1,000 per month and less is around 1%.

The phenomenon of “swaps”

There are many advertisements for apartment exchanges, better known as “swaps”, on rental housing search sites. This practice consists in assigning the lease between tenants in order to ensure that the price of the rent remains low.

This technique is advantageous for those who have a home to exchange, but complicates the search for several other tenants.

Chloé does not want to exchange her apartment, knowing that it has problems. “I wish it didn’t come to that, but the reality is that all the apartments that are ultra-cool are swapped all the time,” she says.

Is this practice legal? Yes, answers Mélanie Chaperon, a lawyer specializing in residential rentals.

“The Civil Code already provides that when you have an apartment as a tenant, you have the right to sublet or assign your lease,” explains Ms.^me Hood. The “swaps” can prevent the owners from doing work in the apartment when the tenant changes, evokes the lawyer.

“The law says that if the owner wants to refuse the assignment of the lease […] you need serious reasons. Often we look at the solvency of the person, ”says M^me Hood. Among these serious reasons, we count the salary of the tenant, his credit rating and his “behaviour”, which includes in particular the cleanliness of the person.

It is not possible for a landlord to refuse an assignment of lease to accommodate a member of his family in the apartment. He must send a notice to the new tenant to advise him of his intention for the following year, details the lawyer.

However, the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, tabled a bill last week that could allow landlords to refuse a lease assignment. An initiative that FRAPRU deplores, so the law would remove one of “the few ways” to avoid rent increases when tenants change.

“We have seen more cases in recent months of groups where tenants, to help each other, offered lease assignments,” says Véronique Laflamme, specifying that the problem should rather be solved at the source by setting up a rent register.

This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.