Homeless households or those at risk of becoming homeless | The situation continues to worsen in several regions of Quebec

(Montreal) The situation of households without housing, without a lease or looking for housing continued to increase over the last two weeks. Some regions saw decreases, but most saw increases.

While this number reached 1,667 on July 4, it stood at 1,944 on Friday, according to the latest data from the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ). Of this number, 484 households are temporarily housed by municipalities – in hotels for 167 of them – or with relatives for the other 317. However, approximately 10% of these temporarily housed households are households that received assistance following a disaster and not because of the housing crisis.

Not a surprise

“Generally speaking, we are seeing a slight increase in the number of households that are still being supported and we are not surprised by that, considering the lack of housing that is observed quite widely across the territory,” explains Sébastien Olivier, director of communications at the SHQ in an interview with The Canadian Press.

He specifies that most of the households that were added were already known to the SHQ, but did not require active support, because they had “a plan B” or planned to find housing, but these options did not materialize.

As for the 1,460 households in difficulty who are not temporarily housed, “that does not necessarily mean that they no longer have housing now, but perhaps they will no longer have any by mid-August or by the 1st^er September. So we’re following them closely,” he said.

Behind the numbers, there are people

He does, however, say that we hope to see some reduction starting in mid-September, but he warns that this is more of a hope than a forecast in the current context where the housing market is extremely tight. He points out that “these are still statistics and behind each figure, there are households who are experiencing very specific situations, often difficult realities.”

Sébastien Olivier also took the opportunity to highlight “the work that is being done on the ground. This year, we have seen an improvement in the support that is being offered. There are many, many people, large support networks that are being put to work and we are very satisfied. We recognize that a lot.”