About a hundred social housing units are currently vacant in Sherbrooke, despite the existence of a long waiting list to access them, because the organization responsible for them lacks manpower and funding, learned The duty.
The Office municipal d’habitation de Sherbrooke (OMHS) manages a stock of approximately 1,700 social housing units. Of this number, year after year, 60 to 70 are vacant because they have to undergo renovations of all kinds. However, this number has increased since the start of the pandemic, said in an interview the director general of the organization, Marie-Claude Bégin. “We have difficulty catching up,” she agrees.
This situation comes at the very time when 1,300 households are on a waiting list to have access to social housing in Sherbrooke and when concerns are growing as the 1er July. And it raises the ire in Quebec.
” I can not believe it. […] In the midst of the housing crisis, it is totally unacceptable that we have vacant social housing in Quebec, ”lamented Wednesday morning the solidarity member for Sherbrooke, Christine Labrie, in a telephone interview. She then challenged the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, to the National Assembly, to demand in particular the creation of an emergency fund to finance the renovation of these social housing units left vacant by force. things.
“We want these homes to be put back into circulation as soon as possible,” insisted Mme Labrie at To have to. “We need urgent help. Will the minister help us? she then asked M.me Laforest. The Minister then argued at the Blue Room that 191 affordable housing units have been “delivered” since 1er October in Sherbrooke, while 62 others are under construction, partly thanks to the support of the federal government.
“Now, when you say that the housing authorities cannot afford […]I am pleased to tell you that we have just invested 150 million to adjust the costs of building materials in all housing office projects, ”added the elected CAQ member.
Overwhelmed employees
During this time, however, the OMHS can only count, for financial reasons, on six full-time employees responsible for the maintenance and renovation of the 1,700 social housing units managed by the organization. These employees are “overwhelmed” and struggle to meet demand, confirms Marie-Claude Bégin. Thus, many dwellings that require renovations — to retype bathrooms or change kitchen cabinets, for example — must remain vacant for long periods.
“Six people to maintain 1,700 homes, do you think that’s reasonable? […] It can’t be, it can’t work, ”lashed Mme Labrie to the National Assembly.
Moreover, OMHS employees do not have construction competency cards. The work that requires having these qualifications must therefore be the subject of calls for tenders to the private sector, itself overwhelmed in the current context of shortage of labor and materials, notes Mr.me Begin.
According to the latter, the OMHS budget dedicated to the maintenance of its housing stock should be “doubled” to meet demand.
Christine Labrie is also calling for an increase in the budgets dedicated to the renovation and maintenance of the social housing stock of the municipal housing offices “so that such a delay in maintenance does not happen again”. Thus, with more financial means, organizations like the OMHS could hire a full-time plumber and electrician to speed up its renovations, specifies the elected representative of Québec solidaire.
On the streets on July 1
The MNA for Sherbrooke also believes that time is running out: the number of households supported by the OMHS is increasing ahead of the moving period. The Sherbrooke organization also foresees that 200 people will be homeless on the sidelines of the 1er July, twice as many as last year. In Montreal too, requests for tenants in need identified by the City are on the rise, reported The duty last month. “It suggests that we are heading for a disaster on the 1er July”, worries Mme Labrie.
The spokesperson for the Sherbrooke Tenants’ Association, Mario Mercier, also fears that, like last year, many families will not be able to find housing by the end of their lease. Since the vacancy rate for rental units fell below 1% in several sectors of Sherbrooke and its surroundings last year, some of these households could have to stay in hotels for months before finding a suitable apartment. their needs.
“With the lack of availability of large housing, it creates a bottleneck and we are particularly afraid that this will be the case this year”, raises Mr. Mercier, who notes that the housing crisis is increasingly affecting the class. mean. “We feel it, the worry. »