For 66,000 Quebec households, the budget tabled Tuesday contains good news: their housing assistance of $100 per month, which was to end in the fall, will be extended for three years.
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Low-income households who spend between 30% and 50% of their income on housing benefit from the Housing Allowance program, if they have at least one child or a person aged 50 or over. This aid was due to end in September 2024, but will ultimately be extended until 2027.
It was already planned that the other levels of assistance, for people spending 50% or more of their income on housing, would be maintained.
This measure, which represents an investment of $200.8 million over three years, is one of the few concerning housing in the 2024-2025 budget of the Government of Quebec.
We could hardly expect massive new investments, only a few months after the economic update of September 2023, in which the government announced a sum of $1.8 billion for the construction of 8,000 new social and affordable housing units. A sharp increase in investments in improving the social and community housing stock is planned over 10 years.
For HLM
The budget also includes an investment of $219.4 million over four years for the renovation and operation of low-income housing (HLM). Investments of $97 million planned over the next 10 years are being added for the renovation of social housing.
The government is also investing:
- $37.9 million over three years to finance the Home Adaptation Program for people with disabilities;
- $16.6 million for access to property in Nunavik;
- $7.8 million to help municipalities support homeless households as the 1st approacheser July.
Student housing
Finally, the government recognizes in this budget that “the supply of student housing proves insufficient to meet needs”.
In the budget, $7.5 million over 5 years will be invested in particular to help educational establishments enter into agreements with building owners, to increase their interest in building student residences.
Over the next decade, $197.8 million is planned for student housing projects.
No QST exemption
The government has chosen not to implement a QST exemption on new construction, as several groups requested to stimulate the start of new housing.
Finance Minister Eric Girard believes that this measure would not be particularly effective. “We must be aware that residential construction is the sector of the economy that is most sensitive to increases in interest rates,” he said Tuesday, adding that waiting for a drop in interest rates interest would be more effective than putting in place such an exemption.
The Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec announced after tabling the budget that it was “disappointed” with the lack of measures to encourage construction starts, including “the exemption from the QST on new rental homes.
Québec solidaire also requested this exemption to give a boost to new construction. “The crisis continues. There have never been so many people on the streets, people are paying a lot for housing which is often of poor quality, and houses are more and more expensive,” summarized MP Haroun Bouazzi.