A tenant who says she fears ending up on the street is suing the City of Montreal in Superior Court, we learned The duty. She thus hopes to force the municipal administration to withdraw authorization from the Mondev company to demolish the building in which she lives in order to carry out a vast real estate project opposite Place Émilie-Gamelin.
Since 2013, Carla White has occupied accommodation located on Saint-Hubert Street, a few steps from Place Émilie-Gamelin, for which she pays monthly rent of $400. The apartment, however, constitutes the only occupied accommodation in the three-story building that the real estate giant Mondev has wanted to demolish for several years to carry out a project of 176 housing units on a site including the former Da Giovanni restaurant.
The demolition committee of the Ville-Marie district initially refused last spring to grant the demolition permits requested by the company, indicating that it must first prove, with supporting documents, that the file concerning the tenant’s move had been settled by mutual agreement.
During the hearing which preceded this committee decision, the developer claimed to have offered the tenant an apartment located in another building in the fall of 2022, which would be offered to her at the same rent. However, Carla White refused accommodation without having visited it, since the entrance to the building in question did not appear safe to her.
The developer then offered the tenant $20,000 in January 2023 in exchange for her leaving the premises; a proposal that the latter refused, judging that it would not allow her to access long-term housing, at a time when rents are skyrocketing in the metropolis.
A contested demolition permit
Then, last month, the borough gave the developer a permit to demolish the building where M lives.me White, under the pretext that he had made all the necessary efforts to try to resolve this tenant’s file. The latter then received a notice ordering her departure from the premises by June 30.
However, no other option complementary to those mentioned by Mondev during the hearing of the demolition committee last year has since been proposed to Mr.me White. “We were ready to consider other options, but we were told no, there is no other accommodation,” said the tenant’s lawyer, Manuel Johnson, in an interview, referring to Mondev managers.
The lawyer therefore argues, in a lawsuit filed Monday at the Montreal courthouse, that the City’s decision to change its position in this matter by granting a demolition permit to Mondev without the company having concluded an agreement with his tenant is illegal.
“The mere passage of time does not constitute a change of situation,” notes the lawsuit. Manuel Johnson, however, affirms that his client would have been open to visiting other apartments in the metropolis, if the Mondev company had offered her other options. However, this was not the case, says Me Johnson, who will try to obtain from the Superior Court the suspension of the project to demolish this building while an agreement is reached between Mondev and Carla White in order to relocate the latter to a location that meets her needs.
Because, otherwise, the elderly tenant risks finding herself on the street, as was the case after she was evicted from her previous accommodation in 2011. “The loss of her accommodation could cause irreparable harm to her health, in a context where she risks finding herself homeless,” indicates the legal action.
Housing crisis
A first hearing in this case will take place on May 23. If the demolition of the building where Carla White lives is put on hold, this could have the effect of delaying the completion of the real estate project planned by Mondev opposite Place Émilie-Gamelin.
“We made an offer to the lady which was excessively generous. She was offered very recent accommodation, at the same price, at a rent fixed for her life. Then, we made her an offer of $20,000 and she did not accept this offer,” says Mondev president David Owen. However, in the meantime, this real estate project is slow to see the light of day in the midst of the “housing crisis”, laments the developer.
“We were extremely generous with the lady. But all it did was delay the arrival of hundreds of housing units in an area that needs revitalization,” Mr. Owen continued in an interview.
The office of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante declined to comment on the situation.