Tenants who pay top dollar to sleep in a kitchen, in a dreary room without electricity or running water or in an underground garage transformed into a rooming house: Montrealers must compete in ingenuity to find accommodation in a market where apartments are are rare — and expensive.
Tenant support groups note an “explosion” in the number of “precarious” housing, often offered by unscrupulous landlords. To counter this trend considered alarming, the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough has just adopted a regulation aimed at regulating the conversion of garages into so-called “partial” rooming houses, we learned. The duty.
Building owners wishing to convert a garage or underground parking lot into a rooming house must now respect a series of criteria: they have the obligation to demonstrate that their project respects the neighborhood (in terms of noise, population density, circulation and waste management, in particular) and has an entrance independent from the rest of the building, for security reasons.
Garages transformed into rooming houses without a permit, however, remain available to poor tenants. Richard (who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals) lived for several months in an unaddressed garage, at the back of a courtyard, in the north of Montreal. The “studio”, rented for $375 per month, was equipped with a bed, a sofa, a kitchenette and a bathroom. There were only tiny windows.
“It was dark and damp. It smelled a little like cement sometimes. It was full of smoke when I was cooking. But it was better than being outside,” says Richard. The man, supported by a community organization, moved into “real” housing.
In a dingy basement
Other tenants live in even more difficult conditions. Jose Lopez, aged 59, lived for more than three years on a mattress in a tiny room without water or electricity, in the basement of a building in the Côte-des-Neiges district. He had access to a toilet in the neighboring building, via a corridor. He had to go to a community organization to take a shower and get food.
The owner of the building had convinced him to stay temporarily in these difficult conditions, while his accommodation was renovated. He was never able to return to his apartment, the rent of which had more than doubled after the work.
“I felt like I was in a rat hole,” says Jose Lopez, met at his new home, in an HLM in Côte-des-Neiges.
The man lives on social assistance after suffering an accident. In hesitant French, he speaks with emotion of the distress that gripped him until March 29, 2022, when the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce ordered the evacuation of the dark room that he had been holding for months.
This accommodation “is likely to harm the health, safety and well-being of residents and the public, constitutes a nuisance and is unfit for habitation. It thus contravenes the requirements of the Regulation respecting the sanitation, maintenance and safety of housing,” indicates the evacuation notice, which The duty was able to consult. We also saw photos of the room, where the tenant’s meager possessions were piled up.
A mattress in the kitchen
Margaret van Nooten, a worker at Project Genesis, which supports people looking for housing, helped Jose Lopez get out of the dingy basement where he was languishing. She and her colleagues are overwhelmed by requests for help from poor tenants. The phone rings constantly in his office. The organization’s waiting room is crowded with people who fear ending up on the street.
“We are seeing an explosion in the number of precarious “housing” situations, tolerated because there are no other options, especially for single people who receive a social assistance check,” she said, citing a report to which she contributed on the homelessness crisis, which will be unveiled on September 27.
“We visited illegally operated rooming houses, where the dividers between rooms rented for $600 or $750 are made of cardboard. We meet citizens who rent by the night, by the week, by the month, spaces such as kitchen floors, old furnace rooms without electricity or water, commercial premises more or less transformed, or even stairwells where it is possible to sleep from midnight to 6 a.m. without being noticed. Some owners have even transformed their garage into rooms for rent,” indicates the report, published by the Assistance Network for Single and Homeless People of Montreal (RAPSIM).
The duty was able to view documents indicating that a student pays rent of $550 per month to occupy the kitchen of an improvised rooming house. The young man was able to install a mattress in a corner of the room, but he is constantly disturbed by his roommates. Joined by The dutyhe refused to testify publicly, for fear of reprisals.
Rooms in the garage
So-called “partial” rooming houses, set up in particular in underground parking lots or garages of apartment buildings, have been increasing over the past five years, according to a document from the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-borough. Grace.
“The majority present various problems of unsanitary conditions, management of residual materials and safety,” indicates the document.
This is a way of adding housing to the rental market, but these conversions raise fears: variable quality of rooms, increase in population in already densely populated areas, loss of parking spaces and tensions between old and new residents.
Work to convert the underground garages of five buildings on rue Bouchette, in the Côte-des-Neiges district, is underway. Two representatives of Duty noted that four “studios” will be set up in each of the garages. A common kitchen will be available to tenants.
“We’re going to help people find housing. Rental housing is rare in Montreal,” says Al Chowdhury, manager at Mackroc Corporation, which owns the five buildings where garages are converted into rooming houses. People on site told Duty that the studios will be offered at $1,000 per month, but the manager specifies that the rents remain to be determined.
The conversion work began without a permit from the district, reveals notices sent by bailiff on January 9, 2023, that The duty consulted. The company subsequently obtained all the required permits, confirms Étienne Brunet, division head at the district. “Post-work inspections will take place,” he specifies.
Margaret van Notten says she hopes the rooms will meet health and safety standards. “The tenants of these rooming houses are vulnerable. They are usually the last to complain. »