Why so much homelessness in Quebec? | The Press

In parks, under bridges, on the street or in shelters, it seems that homelessness is exploding everywhere in Quebec. The Press spoke to four researchers to try to understand the reasons behind this social crisis, and the solutions to deal with it.

Lila Dussault

The Press

Rents that are too expensive, tenants that are too poor and a crying lack of housing: several factors are pushing more and more people on the street in Quebec, according to experts.

The cost of rents

Unsurprisingly, rising rent prices linked to the housing crisis are the root cause of homelessness, according to all the experts contacted by The Press. It pushes people into the street and prevents them from getting out. “We have less and less housing that can accommodate people with a disadvantaged socioeconomic profile,” summarizes the sociologist from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Guillaume Ouellet.

Rent inflation was 6.5% in May 2023, according to the latest report from Rentals.ca. At that time, the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Montreal was $1,657 per month. For two bedrooms, the average cost was $2,172 per month, according to this report. However, the amount allocated by last resort assistance (social assistance) is $770 per month for a person capable of working. And $923 per month for those who cannot work, according to the Quebec government website.

In April 2023, 273,934 adults were receiving social assistance in Quebec. In 2020, 17.4% of Quebec households were also considered low income, according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

“If there are more people who have difficulty affording housing, homelessness will increase,” says Eric Latimer of the Douglas Research Center. This observation is clear in the scientific literature, he adds. “There are a lot of studies looking at, for example, the association between housing affordability and the percentage of people experiencing homelessness in different US cities. »

“Not everyone is affected by the housing or inflation crisis in the same way”, also explains Céline Bellot, director of the Profiling Observatory. “It weighs heavily on populations in a situation of vulnerability, precariousness. »

The lack of housing

Not only is housing more expensive, but there is less of it. According to the latest report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), there was a record addition of 16,000 new rental units in Montreal in 2023. But the vacancy rate fell to 1, 6% this year in metropolitan France (the balance is at 3 or 4%). And it is even lower in other Quebec cities.

For what ? First because of strong immigration, which resumed after the pandemic, underlines the CMHC. “Immigration targets will likely remain unchanged in Quebec [dans les prochaines années], and the province will welcome many non-permanent residents (international students, temporary workers, asylum seekers), the report reads. This factor will strongly support demand for rental housing. »

Not to mention the some 26,500 homes in Quebec offered on online rental platforms like Airbnb, according to the abasairbnb.org website.

At the same time, the economic context and the difficulties of access to property also mean that fewer households become owners – and therefore remain tenants –, underlines the CMHC. This same context is limiting the new housing starts needed to bring the market back into balance.

In other words: “everything is blocked”, underlines M^me Bellot. “These factors weigh heavily on a segment of the population at risk of homelessness, and which falls into homelessness. »

The lack of social housing

The number of community or affordable social housing is not enough to curb the crisis, also supports Mr.^me Bellot. For example, in 2020, there were 74,328 low-rent housing units (HLM) in Quebec. A number almost unchanged for 14 years, according to the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ).

To help low-income households, the government has invested in the Rent Supplement Program (PSL) in recent years. This allows tenants to pay only 25% of their income while living in private accommodation. The number of PSLs offered in Quebec has increased from 28,107 in 2018 to 32,498 in 2022, according to data provided to The Press by the SHQ.

But PSLs become useless when there are no available accommodations, remarks M^me Bellot.

” [Pendant mes recherches]I saw several people who were in their first episode of homelessness, because we are at a turning point where there is no housing, “adds Caroline Leblanc, doctoral student in community health at the University of Sherbrooke.

Finally, other social and economic phenomena – such as inflation – could add up and have an impact on homelessness. There is in particular the increase in breakups and domestic violence during the pandemic, the fact that health and social services are saturated, the lack of support for releases from prison, youth center or hospital. Or the crises raging in Aboriginal communities, lists Mr. Ouellet.

Is it possible to counter homelessness?

Prevention is better than cure. What if we applied the saying to homelessness? Solutions exist to prevent people from falling into the street, and to help those who are there to get out of it.

Housing and poverty

To deal with homelessness, we must fight both poverty and the housing crisis, says Eric Latimer, a researcher at the Douglas Research Center. We spoke to him while he was in Norway doing a study on homelessness solutions in Scandinavian countries.

“Here, we are in another reality, where we do a lot more so that people with lower incomes can afford housing,” he says. There is no miracle. People have to be able to find housing and have an income to live on at the same time. »

Scandinavian states see housing as a right, adds Latimer.

“They have a mission to ensure that there is affordable housing available for people with low and moderate incomes. And state employees to support them,” he explains.

The city of Helsinki, Finland is regularly featured as a leader in the fight against homelessness. Its approach combines the construction of a large number of social and affordable housing units with a “housing first” approach, where people experiencing homelessness can quickly access a place to live permanently.

Fewer restrictions

For the doctoral student from the University of Sherbrooke Caroline Leblanc, who specializes in camps and the reality of people who live on the street, we must also reduce the barriers so that these people can find accommodation. “Even if there is more social housing, there are discriminatory criteria [comme avoir une adresse fixe, ne pas avoir de dette, avoir fait ses impôts, avoir des documents d’identité] that bring people to live on the street,” she says.

Same thing with emergency shelters, which sometimes ask to meet criteria (being a man or a woman, not having animals, not having consumed, etc.), adds Caroline Leblanc.

In addition, social housing programs “will sometimes take people away from their communities and the resources they need,” adds Ms.^me The White.

In his view, housing should not be the only possible solution. “We need new projects with approaches that do not create exclusion. Unconventional forms of housing that will meet everyone’s needs. »

Prevention

Reinvesting in prevention would also prevent as many people from falling into the streets, experts believe. Whether by supporting tenants at risk of eviction or by better supporting those leaving institutions (prison, hospital, youth center), for example.

This is one of the approaches advocated in Scandinavian countries, argues Mr. Latimer.

“We don’t just work in an emergency or to get people off the street, we work upstream to prevent them from losing housing,” explains Eric Latimer.

Unlike Quebec, where “we hardly talk about homelessness prevention anymore, where we have almost lost that vision,” according to Guillaume Ouellet, sociologist and researcher at the Montreal Research Center on Social Inequalities, Discrimination and Practices. citizenship alternatives (CREMIS). “If a person is more refractory [aux services]we will quickly give up and leave it to itself, ”he believes.

political solutions

The fight against homelessness cannot only go through community organizations, argues Caroline Leblanc based on her research. “It’s having magical thinking to think that organizations have the backbone strong enough to deal with that, it’s a bit of disempowering as a government,” she says.

In particular, she suggests that a minister be entrusted with the homelessness file “to have a global and complete vision of the issues”. In addition, Quebec’s national policy for the fight against homelessness could be the subject of a law, which would get things moving, according to her.

Finally, municipalities should have more powers to deal with homelessness, concludes Ms.^me The White. On this subject, the Union of Quebec Municipalities will hold a summit on homelessness on September 15, the first of its kind in Quebec.