I wouldn’t have bet that many people would show up at the courthouse on a hot Friday in July. That day, the occupants of the Mont-Carmel seniors’ residence were there to request a safeguard order to maintain the services that the new owner of the building planned to abolish at the end of July.
At least 80 people were massed in the corridors: comrades, tenants, former employees of the RPA. Lots of rods and white heads, despite the blistering heat and the seventh pandemic wave.
And behind Nicole Jetté, of the Mont-Carmel residents’ committee, who acts as a petitioner in court, the courtroom was full.
This affair has made a lot of noise since December. Since the eviction notice given cavalierly to the occupants of this RPA on René-Lévesque Boulevard, which told them that the building had been sold and that it would soon be converted into a “multigenerational” building.
Everyone understood what that meant: buy, drive out the old, renovate, then re-let, ideally at a high price. We recognize the stratagem that the new owner, Henry Zavriyev, a young investor enthroned on an empire built on the anguish and the tears of the tenants, reproduces almost everywhere in the city.
She was beautiful, this demonstration of solidarity, there is no doubt. And the struggle waged for months by the residents’ committee of the RPA Mont-Carmel is a real lesson in activism.
The fact remains that on the day of the hearing, during the dinner break, after hearing the arguments of the owner’s attorneys, Nicole Jetté was crying. The record of our housing policies could be summed up in this image: a 79-year-old lady, exhausted from having to fight to live somewhere affordable and safe, sobbing in a Superior Court room on a Friday in July .
Tuesday evening, I received a call from one of the members of the Mont-Carmel residents’ committee, Suzanne Loiselle, who has been keeping me informed since the beginning of this saga. At the end of the line, she stamps: the order has been granted, the owner will have to continue to offer the services which make it an RPA at least until September, when the case will be heard on the merits.
A small victory, only one round. Just enough to breathe a little. The problem is that we will never be able to repair the damage that has already been done to the living environment that was the RPA Mont-Carmel.
The first time I visited the residence was in September 2021, before the sale. The atmosphere was communal, reassuring. Employees called residents by name.
When I went back this week, the contrast was stark. The convenience store, the hair salon and the restaurant have disappeared. We go in and out without announcing ourselves. The maintenance of common areas is visibly neglected.
When I arrive, a young man calls out to me with a smile: Are you here for a visit? It’s because the owner has already begun to re-let the deserted apartments. On Kijiji, we announce: “ All Utilities Included in downtown Montreal! $1100 per month! » No sign that this is a residence for seniors. No mention of the standoff between the former tenants and the owner. In the elevator, a tenant asks me in a worried voice if I’m a new tenant. An atmosphere of mistrust hovers over the Mont-Carmel residence.
At the reception, an employee confides with emotion: “I am counting the days before my departure. In recent months, what has been inflicted on this living environment has deeply upset her: the anxiety and distress of those who have resigned themselves to leaving, the dismissal of staff, the tensions between current residents and new tenants…
However, it is difficult to blame these new occupants: they too are suffering from the affordable housing crisis. Moreover, as revealed by Pivot, the owner of the Mont-Carmel residence now seems to be recruiting tenants in Facebook groups for newcomers.
On site, there is indeed the presence of younger tenants, often Spanish-speaking. This generational and cultural mix could have worked in another context, that is not the question. But here, the instrumentalization is obvious: we rent the accommodation to people who are also likely to be in a precarious situation, hoping to wear down the former residents. This de facto brings about the change of vocation of the building.
What will happen to these new occupants when the owner of the place decides that it is time to do something more “profitable” with this property acquired at a high price and located in an ideal location for the rental of luxury ? Who knows. Journalists may have more shocking eviction stories to write.
And meanwhile, in Quebec, at the City of Montreal, we are pleased to have already done a lot for the rights of tenants.
The fate of the RPA Mont-Carmel is not yet sealed: the next round will take place this fall, still before the courts. But this story is already a poignant illustration of the violence inflicted on vulnerable tenants by a society that perpetually chooses to hand them over to the market.