“There is nothing, nothing, nothing! A year that Lou LeBlanc is looking for. A year that she can’t find. There is nothing for her in New Richmond, the small town where she grew up, in Gaspésie. She moved back there a few years ago to help her sick mother. She tried everything. And she has no more time. On the eve of 1er July, she had to make up her mind to pack up. Evicted from her home at age 74. “The owner was very smart, he moved my things to a locker. »
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
I wanted testimonials that embody the housing crisis in Quebec. I was advised to look towards Gaspésie. I have been served. Very good. The testimonies began to rain down, each one more distressing than the other.
There is Lou LeBlanc, who phoned everywhere, even the town hall, without success. It was one to midnight when a childhood friend took pity on her. “He said to me: ‘Look, I have a room, you can rent it.’ »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LOU LEBLANC
Lou LeBlanc
There is Emma, 26, who was looking for Bonaventure. His parents live there on a large unused land. Due to zoning regulations, it is impossible to build anything there. After two years of research, Emma found accommodation in the village of Saint-Omer… an hour away. “With the price [de l’essence], I can’t afford to be close to my family and friends as much as I would like. »
She considers herself lucky under the circumstances.
There is this Facebook page, supposed to advertise housing for rent in the Baie-des-Chaleurs, but which has taken on the appearance of a desperate bulletin board for citizens looking for a roof. Here, it is the aspiring tenants who announce themselves, without really believing it, like shipwrecked people throwing bottles into the sea.
“I’m looking for housing, I live in a rent with bugs, humidity, ants. I have two children and I am pregnant. It would still be urgent please. »
We scroll down the page and words keep coming back. Urgent. Desperate. At the end. “I’ve been wanting to move for three years, there’s nothing. »
“My father and his wife, 65, their two little dogs who light up their lives every day. What will they do ? Outside their home with a low income. »
“Me too, I am on the street on the 30th [juin], as the owner tells me. I’ve come to the end. I even have more nerves to try to struggle. »
“I’ve been looking for two years and I haven’t found anything. I was forced to return to Outaouais. »
“I can’t believe that at my age, 43, I’m going to have to go back to my parents. »
There is Anne-Marie Courtemanche, who administers the Facebook page. Daily witness of despair. And, sometimes, the worst trickery. The other day she saw $1,000 a month housing pass, kids not allowed. It was illegal, but the owner didn’t care; he was overwhelmed with requests. He upped the ante. The next day, the rent had gone up to $1,500 a month. And, later, $2,000!
There is Marie-Ève O’Connor, who wanted to move back to Chandler after three years of study outside the region. In six months, the animal health technician has only found an overpriced three and a half and Airbnbs. Full of Airbnb.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARIE-ÈVE O’CONNOR
Marie-Eve O’Connor
The least we can say is that we will never run out of Airbnbs.
Marie-Eve O’Connor
Tourists will be happy. They will not realize that the accommodations they rent at exorbitant prices for the holidays were occupied by Gaspésiens thrown into the street until September.
In the Gaspé, 15% of tenants are asked to leave their homes during the summer season to make room for tourists. Many have nowhere to go. “There are people who camp during the summer. Others who live in trailers. There is a lot of hidden homelessness, people who live with their family, with friends, ”reports Cédric Dussault, spokesperson for the Regrouping of housing committees and tenant associations of Quebec.
“Cities keep saying that young people should return to the region after their studies, but they are not even able to house us, to find us a roof,” exasperated Marie-Ève O’Connor. “They don’t seem to be in a hurry to build housing to ensure economic recovery. They much prefer to bet everything on tourists. »
There are jobs, yes, but no housing. If it continues like this, Anne-Marie Courtemanche fears, “there will be no one left, eventually, to work in our businesses, in our schools, in our public services”.
The shortage seems to be getting worse every year. If the authorities do not quickly redress the bar, the social fabric of the peninsula will erode even faster than its banks.
When the Minister of Housing, Andrée Laforest, denied the existence of a housing crisis in Quebec last year, the PQ MP for Gaspé, Méganne Perry Mélançon, wanted to document the phenomenon in her region. Like me, she didn’t need to look for testimonials: they fell on her, one after the other. Anecdotes, she collected in spades.
There is this TVA journalist, full of potential. “He camped in an old trailer thinking it was going to be temporary,” says the MP. He stayed there all summer, at the Cap-aux-Os campground, doing journalism in the field while living in a very unstable living environment. He left again… ”
There are all these other missed opportunities for Gaspésie. All these hidden dramas. We can only see anecdotes there. But place them end to end: they will form a social crisis as obvious as the nose in the middle of the face, as formidable as a peak, a cape, a peninsula.