The rental market is in crisis in Quebec. However, more than 3,200 social housing units are vacant in the province’s 10 largest cities, in part because they need renovation, learned The duty. An “unacceptable” situation for the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau.
The data provided to Duty by the municipal housing offices that manage the social housing stock of these large Quebec cities report a total of 3,231 vacant apartments. This number represents 4.71% of the social housing units managed by these organizations, in cities where there is a crying need for affordable housing.
Several of these dwellings are temporarily vacant, following the move of their former occupants, particularly on the sidelines of the 1er July. They then find themselves empty, the time to be refurbished to be subsequently re-let to low-income households.
However, these data also show a chronic problem, namely the poor state of social housing in Quebec. Nearly 1,400 currently vacant apartments located in the 10 largest cities in Quebec are due to renovations or major work that has been stretching, in some cases, for years, according to data obtained by The duty. All at a time when the Société d’habitation du Québec reports that as of December 31, 2021, more than 37,500 tenant households in Quebec had registered on waiting lists to obtain low-rent housing.
“In the current context, where households are struggling to find affordable rents and the lists of people waiting for housing in HLM are very long, it is annoying and unacceptable to see that thousands of HLM units are vacant. For me, it just doesn’t work! said the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, in writing on Thursday.
“I expect that vacant units in good condition will be quickly made available to households that need them. This situation must be resolved in the coming weeks. As for those who require work, things must speed up,” added the Minister, calling on the boards of directors of housing offices to “be more vigilant”. “We are no longer in the hour of complacency. »
maintenance challenges
In the metropolitan area, of the 2,308 social housing units currently vacant, 821 are “restricted in the longer term” due to major works currently or soon in progress or because they are located in buildings in need of maintenance, but for which “we are waiting for funding”, indicates to the Duty the spokesperson for the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM), Mathieu Vachon. Several social housing buildings are thus boarded up in Montreal, waiting to be renovated.
“There are people who are in HLM at the moment who are sick” because of the presence of mold or the unsanitary condition of their social housing, deplores the coordinator at the Federation of tenants of low-income housing in Quebec, Robert Pilon.
Mathieu Vachon wants to be optimistic, however: the OMHM has received $94 million under the Canada-Quebec Housing Agreement, “which allows us to carry out work in a majority of the buildings that were once barricaded,” he said. These buildings, currently empty due to their poor condition, could thus welcome new tenants within a few years, foresees Mr. Vachon.
In Gatineau, in 2022, the average vacancy rate for rental units fell to 0.8%, according to data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. However, the Outaouais Housing Office reports a vacancy rate of 8.32%, for a total of 223 social housing units that cannot accommodate tenants, in particular because work is in progress there. This situation is linked to the fact that the maintenance of the organization’s social housing stock has been deficient for decades, for financial reasons, argues its executive director of customer experience, Éric Tremblay.
“It would have been more gradual, but since not enough funds have been invested over the years, there is now some catching up to do” in the interview, he notes. According to him, if social housing had been renovated “in a more sustained fashion” over the years, the vacancy rate would now be lower. “It’s a good sign that we’re renovating, but we have a lot to do because like everywhere else, our HLMs are aging,” he adds.
Data from the Société d’habitation du Québec also show a maintenance deficit for social housing that exceeds $800 million in the 10 largest cities in Québec. It is in Montreal that the rate of housing deemed to be in poor condition is the highest, at 73.20%. It is followed by Laval (68.8%) and Lanaudière (66%).
“We’ve been fighting for 30 years to get governments to put more money into renovating the stock,” laments Mr. Pilon, who notes that the current vacancy rate for social housing in Quebec is the result of decades of laxity in the maintenance of these. The latter, however, sees a good eye on the government investment of 2.2 billion planned in Quebec by 2028 for the renovation of social housing. “Theoretically, it looks good for the future, he says. We are optimistic. »
The Office municipal d’habitation de Québec sees its vacancy rate of 3.7% as “good news”. “It’s a sign that we are renovating our housing stock,” argues its general manager, Dany Caron. “We don’t keep empty dwellings just to keep them empty,” he adds, while acknowledging that the organization is however “dependent” on the funding it receives “to renovate dwellings”. However, “investment in existing buildings is very important,” emphasizes Mr. Caron.