Mount Carmel Residence | A change of vocation worries senior tenants

Tough morning for the seniors of the Mont-Carmel private residence, located in downtown Montreal.

Louise Leduc
The Press

Like thousands of other seniors in Quebec for the past seven years, they received an eviction notice on Monday informing them that their 221-unit complex will be converted in August to a standard housing building, without nurses or supervision. They will be able to stay on site, but their rents will be increased and they will no longer be entitled to services adapted to their age.

“Despite the legal terms contained in the eviction notice attached hereto, we would like to assure you that we would like to keep you as tenants of Mont-Carmel after the transition and that we would be very happy to sign with you a new lease as a simple tenant, at the current rent plus 3% […] “, can we read in the letter sent to the residents.

Normand Breault says that, since his current rent included 24-hour nurses, special supervision, receptionists, etc., the actual increase is well over 3%. With other tenants, he multiplied the calls on Monday to see if there is a possibility of appeal or not. “I am concerned for quite a few elderly people in the residence who are not able to defend themselves in any way. We are thinking of creating a committee,” he said.

Suzanne Saint-Jacques, 88, says she likes downtown. She explains that she has no more desire to move than to stay with this administration, the LRM group, which acquired the building in December and which sent her this eviction notice without prior explanation, she notes.

As fit as she was, the emergency buttons and daily surveillance in each apartment to ensure the good health of each resident gave her security.

Reached by telephone, the president of the LRM group, Robert Kunstlinger, did not want to grant an interview, directing us instead to an expert in public relations, who also did not want to answer questions from The Press.

In the letter, it is specified that people who decide to leave the place will receive “the value of three months’ basic rent, as prescribed by the Administrative Housing Tribunal” and that the residents will be accompanied in the process by the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

The LRM group also owns the Château Royal (in Dollard-des-Ormeaux), the Domaine des Forges (Laval), the Résidence Laval and the Jardin Botanique residence in Montreal. The group had purchased the Mont-Carmel residence in December.

Lots of closures

In recent years, private residences for seniors (RPA) have closed by the dozens.

Between 2015 and 2019, i.e. before the pandemic, 430 residences for the elderly had closed their doors, a hemorrhage caused in particular by the shortage of labor as well as by the obligation to install sprinklers (following the tragic fire of the L’Isle-Verte residence, in 2014).

The pandemic has dealt another big blow to residences for the elderly.

In the office of Marguerite Blais, Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, it is indicated that it has concentrated the assistance programs in small residences. About 74% of RPPs in the province have fewer than 100 units, it says. “Our government is counting on them because they help keep seniors in their community. This is why the majority of our support programs since the start of the pandemic are modulated to be more generous towards them and do not apply to large RPAs. »

The firm notes that “it is true that some small RPAs have closed recently, but that in total, the number of rental units in RPAs is growing from year to year in Quebec”.

In the document Understanding the lease and its scope – A practical guide for operators of private seniors’ residences, the Ministry of Health and Social Services indicates that a landlord “has the right not to renew the lease if he wishes to change the use of the dwelling, subdivide it or even enlarge it substantially. He must then send a notice to the lessee at least 6 months before the expiry of the lease (one month before, if the lease is for a period of 6 months or less). The tenant then has one month to oppose it by addressing the Administrative Housing Tribunal”.