Thirty households will have to be “emergency accommodation” in a hotel by Friday, after the 1er July, according to figures from the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) released on Tuesday. The City says that more than 80 households are currently “accompanied” by its housing assistance services.
Posted at 2:17 p.m.
“Of course we don’t have a crystal ball, but on July 1 we expect a need to house around thirty households,” said the director of demand management, affordable housing. and rent supplements from the OMHM, Vincent Brossard, at a press conference on Tuesday.
Fifteen other homes had already been housed in emergency since the beginning of the year. To date, more than a thousand calls have been made to 311 for housing access issues in the city. More specifically, 456 requests concerned “loss of housing” situations requiring more specific attention. About 81 households were directly supported by the City and the OMHM.
To private owners who would like to participate in the solution, Mr. Brossard issued a formal invitation. “We are looking for accommodation, and especially large accommodation, so owners who have vacant accommodation and who would like to participate in order to possibly offer their accommodation, we invite them to contact us”, he said, recalling that these owners can benefit from a grant.
The vice-president of the executive committee and responsible for housing, Benoit Dorais, does not hide it: the distress surrounding housing is growing in Montreal. “I think it’s really the situation that is different. For some time now we have seen practices of renoviction. It continues, and we also see housing that could be put on the market and with which people decide instead to do short-term accommodation illegally, ”he reasoned.
When you just wanna do more [d’argent] with all sorts of schemes, this is something that literally stinks in my face.
Benoît Dorais, Mayor of the South-West
30 million, an insufficient amount
Mr. Dorais laments that faced with the growing unaffordability of the market, senior governments are simply not doing enough. “There would be far fewer problems if social housing were being built,” he castigated, blaming Quebec and Ottawa.
“In the last budget, our request was clear: 270 million. It’s not a number that came out of nowhere, it’s the needs defined with the environment. But here, the government is giving us 30 million out of the 270, so it’s already not working. And then when we ask for the figures, the government takes time to analyze, and in the time we give the money, the prices continue to increase, ”he insisted again.
In March, the City nevertheless pointed out that these additional 30 million, directly injected into AccèsLogis Montréal, would allow the construction of 2,500 housing units awaiting financing. Mayor Valérie Plante, however, indicated shortly after that the needs were still great.
In the ranks of the opposition, Chief Aref Salem said on Tuesday that he noted “that the method used each year by the administration does not prevent the increase in the number of households accommodated”. “We need to explore other ways to help Montrealers. This is why last February, Ensemble Montréal proposed to create a bank of 100 affordable housing units in anticipation of the 1er July, in collaboration with community groups. Projet Montréal rejected this motion, ”said Mr. Salem.
Earlier, on Monday, Radio-Canada revealed on Monday that the construction and renovation of nearly 6,000 social housing units was in danger in Montreal due to a disagreement between the provincial and federal governments. In a letter sent at the end of May to the President of the Conseil du trésor du Québec, Sonia LeBel, Ms.me Plante denounced the delays in these ongoing discussions since 2018.