Failing to find a place to move to before the end of their lease, at least thirty tenant households will have to be lodged urgently at the hotel on July 1 by the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM). A forecast that could “evolve” in the coming days, specifies the organization.
“We are ready,” Benoit Dorais, head of housing on the executive committee, assured Tuesday during a press briefing held at 11:30 a.m. in the Sud-Ouest borough on the subject of the final preparations for the traditional moving day, Friday. In recent months, the OMHM has received a thousand calls from tenant households in need, including 456 calls, deemed to be more problematic, concerning a “loss of housing”.
Currently, 81 households are still actively supported by the organization’s referral service, a few days before the 1er July.
“These are households who have no solution in terms of their housing, who are experiencing serious problems and who need to be supported more strongly by our services”, explained Tuesday the director of the management of requests, affordable housing and rent supplements at the OMHM, Vincent Brossard.
Some of these tenant households will be able to turn temporarily to relatives who can accommodate them, or even negotiate an extension of their lease. However, some tenants who do not have such alternatives will have no choice but to stay at a hotel at the City’s expense until their situation stabilizes. “It is estimated that around thirty households will need emergency accommodation at 1er July,” says Mr. Brossard.
The director of the OMHM’s communications department, Mathieu Vachon, specifies that it is “very likely” that this estimate “changes” in the coming days, depending on the requests received by the organization. “We can do a real summary report next week,” he says by email.
In recent years, the number of low-income households that the OMHM has had to temporarily house from the time of the moves has continued to climb, going from 52 in 2019 to 104 in 2020, then to 127 per year. last, according to data obtained by The duty last April. The City’s Housing Department then predicted a further increase of 10 to 25% this year in the number of homeless tenant households on 1er July.
“We note that the method used each year by the administration does not prevent the increase in the number of households accommodated during the crisis of 1er July. We must explore other ways to help Montrealers,” insists the leader of Ensemble Montreal, Aref Salem, in a written reaction sent to the media on Tuesday. The elected official thus again deplored that the City had rejected his request, made last February, to “create a bank of 100 affordable housing units in anticipation of the 1er July” by helping community groups rent them below market price and then sell them to tenants.
“We cannot expect different results using the same methods year after year,” adds the opposition politician.
Benoit Dorais, for his part, underlined the constant increase in the budget of the OMHM’s SEO service in recent years. The amount allocated to it this year thus reaches more than 3.5 million.
The role of Airbnb
Asked about the factors contributing to the affordable housing crisis in the metropolis, Mr. Dorais strongly criticized landlords who decide to “illegally” rent their apartment on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. In several central boroughs of the metropolis, tourist residences of this type are only permitted on certain sections of commercial streets, but the supervision of these zoning rules is proving complex.
“From the moment you have a large home, but you decide to provide accommodation [touristique] illegal to make more money […] me, it’s something that literally stinks in my face, ”said Mr. Dorais at a press briefing. According to Inside Airbnb data obtained by The dutythe metropolis has nearly 9,000 entire homes rented out on Airbnb, i.e. around 1% of its rental stock.
Benoit Dorais also pressed Quebec and Ottawa to agree on the parameters of the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, created in 2018. The stumbling block in discussions on this issue is delaying the construction and renovation of thousands of social housing units. in the metropolis, revealed Monday Radio-Canada. However, during this time, the value of land continues to climb, limiting the possibilities offered by this fund in terms of social housing units that will eventually emerge.
“Hurry up! Time is real money, ”said Benoit Dorais on Tuesday, visibly irritated.