Letter to the Minister responsible for Housing
Your ad about building social and other affordable housing is just a band-aid on a hemorrhage. This haemorrhage, Madam, is the housing crisis raging in Quebec. It is characterized by constraints on access to property and the housing crisis. The latter encompasses the environment of tenants, the collection of personal information, the hearings of the Administrative Housing Tribunal and government action that would be more accurately described as inaction (The duty, February 11, 2022, “Stop denying the housing crisis! “).
I heard you defend the inertia of your government by invoking the state of the situation when your party took power. However, he was chosen, among other things, to improve this situation. You are wrong, madam, because you are focusing strictly on access to housing, that is, the rent and the availability of housing. You made the mistake of complying with the demands of the opposition regarding section F of the lease, which will allow landlords to increase abusively over a period of three years instead of five the rent of dwellings which cannot subject to review by the Administrative Housing Tribunal (arts. 1955 and 1956, Civil Code). What about the refusal of a register of leases which would have a positive effect on the affordability of rents?
You have chosen an electoralist measure that ignores the housing crisis as a whole and gives free rein to the abuses of landlords. Your recent announcement therefore demonstrates your position in favor of landlords by ignoring practices that raise questions. So you’re telling tenants to be content with access to housing regardless of other aspects that affect their physical, mental and financial health.
Because of the situation that prevailed when you were appointed, your duty was to present, before the end of your mandate, an action plan offering solutions for the purpose of resolving the housing crisis. Thus, you should have announced the implementation of a public register of leases, the ban on collecting the personal information of aspiring tenants, the illegality of the security deposit, a charter of tenants’ rights including the right to adequate housing and affordable, the modification of the legislation in favor of the anonymity of tenants to denounce the abusive practices of landlords (discrimination, intimidation, etc.) without having to go through the Court. I could extend this list, but I am limited by the space reserved for this rostrum.