Around sixty seniors will have to be rehoused

The Residence of the Botanical Garden, in the east of Montreal, will close its doors next August, we have learned The Press. Consequence: 62 seniors, some of whom are very vulnerable, will have to be relocated to other establishments in the area.

The closure of the private seniors’ residence (RPA) will be announced this Wednesday to residents and employees, the owner, Kevin Moïse Hazout, confirmed to us in a written statement sent in response to our questions.

“The decision to close the RPA is essentially based on the major difficulties encountered over the last two years in recruiting staff and welcoming new residents, all in a context of a major increase in operating costs. After analyzing all the scenarios in depth, we unfortunately had to resolve to close RPA. »

“Until then, all services will be fully maintained,” Mr. Hazout also indicates.

This closure is in addition to several others that have occurred over the past year throughout Quebec. According to a compilation of The Pressat least 77 RPAs closed their doors in 2023 in the province, which represents more than 2,700 fewer seniors’ accommodation spaces (see other text).

The Residence at the Botanical Garden will therefore close on August 17, despite municipal regulations which have prohibited the conversion of RPAs into rental buildings since 2022. “The entire process will take place in complete compliance with all applicable Quebec and municipal regulations,” asserts Mr. Hazout.

However, the owner’s representatives only contacted municipal authorities two days ago, and a meeting only took place on Tuesday, specifies the borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. “No request for modification has been submitted,” specifies spokesperson Judith Gratton-Gervais.

“A communication was subsequently sent to the owner’s spokesperson, reminding him that the borough would not accept a project that would reduce the supply of residences. If a homeowner begins a conversion without a permit, they may be subject to legal action. » Fines of $2,000 per day could also be imposed.

Late Tuesday evening, however, Mr. Hazout sent us an email from the head of the urban planning division at the borough, Félix Champagne-Picotte, which specifies that “the fact that an owner decides to cease operations, whatever the use, does not constitute an infringement of the regulations in force”.

One thing is certain, the Résidence du Jardin Botanique has been welcoming new customers for several months, according to our sources. To a journalist who claimed to want to find an RPA for her elderly mother, the staff on site responded this week that the building was being transformed. “Your mother must be independent. We have no longer provided services since July. It is the CLSC which provides services now,” he was told. The clientele is now “mixed”, it was indicated. “There are also young people coming in. »

At the start of the week, residents were completely unaware of the possibility of reconversion. “We are still an RPA, I have no information on any changes,” said Debra Steven, 76, a resident of the building for 11 years. There are other types of customers in the building now, but in my opinion that’s a good thing. » No, there are no longer any services intended for seniors in the building, “everyone left the services because it was too expensive”, and yes, some of the elderly clientele have packed their bags, notes M^me Steven. “But I don’t want to move. »

Who is Kevin Moïse Hazout?

According to the Register of private residences for seniors in Quebec, three companies own the Résidence du Jardin Botanique: Investissements Kemy, Groupe Hazout and Investissements Gadex. These three companies are shareholders of Investissements 5930 Pie-IX inc., which purchased the Résidence du Jardin Botanique in 2021 for the sum of 17.5 million, according to the Quebec Land Registry. Kevin Moïse Hazout is president of all these companies.

The Botanical Garden Residence can accommodate 150 tenants, indicates the Register of private residences for seniors in Quebec. The CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal has already purchased up to 106 places in this establishment, including 40 intermediate resource places, intended for seniors with a fairly advanced loss of autonomy. But the building now only has 62 seniors, says Mr. Hazout.

The latter is a director of around sixty companies in Quebec active mainly in the real estate field. Through his companies, he owns several addresses in Montreal, but also in Quebec and Montérégie.

His company Immeuble 2380 Sainte-Catherine Est inc. For example, it owns the former Ste-Catherine seniors’ residence in the Ville-Marie district. The establishment accommodated around a hundred elderly people losing their autonomy until its closure in 2022. Mr. Hazout, however, only purchased the building in July 2023, according to the Land Registry. The building, which appears to have been engulfed in flames, is now boarded up.

A controversial owner

In the summer of 2022, Mr. Hazout made a name for himself in Montérégie after purchasing around ten buildings in Cowansville and five buildings of 24 units in Granby. Julie Coderre, from the Family Economy Cooperative Association (ACEF) of Montérégie-Est, was interested in the transactions: she denounced the fact that Mr. Hazout’s company was offering money to certain tenants more vulnerable (sometimes $3,000) to encourage them to leave.

“Some tenants felt they had no choice but to leave. Others thought they could relocate for the same price and found the $3,000 tempting. But with the housing crisis, this amount was quickly exhausted,” says M^me Coderre.

Marie-Claire Hébert, 69, has lived in her home in Cowansville for 31 years. Since the acquisition of the building by a company owned by Mr. Hazout in 2021, she has denounced the fact that the windows of two of her rooms, the edges of which are heavily moldy, have still not been changed despite her multiple requests.

This contested the rent increases deemed abusive by the new owner since 2021.

In January 2022, a group of tenants from the Sainte-Marie district (eastern part of the Ville-Marie district) denounced in the newspaper Metro abusive rent increases and spoke of attempted forced eviction on the part of Mr. Hazout. In 2021, tenants at 2839, boulevard de la Côte-Vertu in Saint-Laurent also complained in the newspaper Metro of having suffered “intimidating, harassing and fraudulent” maneuvers from the Hazout Group. Some reported having terminated their lease because they felt obliged to do so.

These assertions had been refuted by the Hazout Group, which assured in the newspaper Metro that “any departure agreement [avait] been negotiated in good faith and by mutual agreement with the tenants concerned.

We asked Mr. Hazout for his views on all of these stories. “We will not comment publicly on specific situations concerning our tenants,” he responded to us in writing, also indicating that he “does not share the positions reported in the media.”

A contested regulation… and circumvented?

This is not the first time that a large seniors’ residence has closed its doors in the metropolis. In 2022, the closure of the Mont-Carmel residence, with a view to conversion into a traditional rental apartment building, pushed the vast majority of the 200 tenants to find new accommodation. The event caused a lot of ink to be spilled, and as of October 2022, 13 boroughs of the City of Montreal have adopted regulations to prevent such reconversions. However, these regulations were challenged in court. No judgment has yet been rendered in these cases.

“When a borough has adopted this regulation, it is impossible for an RPA to convert [en immeuble locatif]. The borough must grant permits for the zoning change, and it will refuse,” said Béatrice Saulnier, press secretary in the office of Mayor Valérie Plante. However, around ten RPAs closed in Montreal in 2023 (see other text).

Each RPA closure represents a headache for health services, which must go out of their way to rehouse residents, some of whom have great needs.

An RPA that closes must notify the local health and social services network nine months in advance, specifies Joëlle Jetté, spokesperson for the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre. “This delay allows the home support teams of each CISSS to closely support the seniors in their area affected by the closure. Together, they identify needs and take steps to find a new living environment that can satisfy the person,” she says.

But the CISSS sometimes have to “emergency rehouse seniors in [ressources intermédiaires] or CHSLDs, which congests the network,” adds a member of the management of a Montreal CIUSSS, who asked us not to name him, because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

It must be said that the lack of places is glaring in the health and social services network: people wait several months to obtain a place in CHSLD, as revealed The Press last fall. And each private seniors’ residence that closes adds to this pressure.