The City of Montreal anticipates a further increase this year in the number of households that will need to be housed urgently from 1er July, when many cities in Quebec are setting up emergency assistance services for the first time in anticipation of the moving season.
In recent years, the number of low-income households that the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) had to temporarily house from the time of the moves has continued to climb, from 52 in 2019 to 104. in 2020, then to 127 in 2021, according to data provided to the To have to.
These households, which are housed in hotels in particular, sometimes have to wait months before finding accommodation that meets their needs and their ability to pay. There are still eight of them, to date, to be temporarily housed by the OMHM because they were unable to find housing last year, we learned.
“The whole point is that the rarer affordable housing is, the more it prolongs the stay of these people. [en hébergement temporaire] says Clotilde Tarditi, Director of the City’s Housing Department, in an interview, several areas of the city are facing a rapid increase in rents.
This year, the City of Montreal is also planning a further increase of “10 to 25%” in the number of households that will be housed in an emergency by the OMHM from the 1er July, confides the municipal official, who “hopes to make bad forecasts”.
“The housing crisis in Montreal has been a reality for several years now, but it has reached a worrying level again this year,” said the head of housing on the executive committee, Benoit Dorais, who recalls that the budget for the OMHM was improved this year “so that no one finds themselves on the street during the moving period”.
Mme Tarditi also affirms that the City intends to ensure that homeless households on 1er July quickly find “lasting solutions” for housing, in particular by encouraging them to use the Quebec government’s rent supplement program (PSL). Few households in need, however, used it last year, explains the official.
“I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that, in a tight market in the direction of the scarcity of affordable housing, one can think that owners will be less eager to go through this model,” raises Ms.me Tarditi.
“We are preparing for it” in Longueuil
In Longueuil, last year, 58 “requests for assistance” were made by as many tenant households, which totaled 101 people struggling to find housing in anticipation of the 1er July, remind the To have to the mayoress of the city of the South Shore, Catherine Fournier. Of this number, 13 households had to be temporarily housed with the help of the Red Cross, sometimes for months.
This year, this portrait could darken in the context of the growing gap between the monthly rents of “currently occupied” dwellings and those, more recent, which are available for rental. This difference would be several hundred dollars, says Mme Fournier, who indicates that the City has set up “a housing crisis management committee, which is already hard at work” to support tenants who will find themselves up against the wall on 1er July. “We are preparing for it. »
The housing crisis in Montreal has been a reality for several years now, but it has reached a worrying level again this year
In Laval, where several sectors are experiencing a real estate boom, the average price of rents has risen by 37% in 10 years, says the municipal councilor of Sainte-Rose and responsible for housing-related files, Flavia Alexandra Novac.
“It is more difficult for us to find affordable housing for people in need, but there is an effort to support tenants”, through an assistance service, which helps them find an apartment, explains the elected municipal official. This service has already received 89 requests for assistance since the beginning of the year.
A first in several cities
The housing crisis is spreading in a growing number of remote cities in the greater Montreal area, which has prompted some of them to set up, for the first time this year, assistance services for their tenants. , in anticipation of the moving season. This is the case of Granby, in Estrie, where 0.1% of rental units were unoccupied last year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“This is possibly the first time that the City of Granby has experienced this type of problem,” notes Mayor Julie Bourdon, who indicates that she has set up an “emergency committee for the 1er July “. The City intends, among other things, to hire “a resource” to help it manage the assistance that will be offered to tenants in need, indicates the mayor, who also intends to make “a call to all with the owners” to find “places available” for tenants in need.
“We have already received calls from people who have not found accommodation for the 1er July and who don’t know what to do,” says Ms.me Bourdon, who hopes to be able to avoid “that the crisis becomes too serious in Granby”, in particular by reserving land for social housing projects.
In Rimouski, a support service to help tenants looking for housing was already in place last year. The vacancy rate on the rental market, already very low, has since fallen to 0.2% for small housing, or even 0% for those intended for families, notes the director of customer service at the Office d’habitation de Rimouski-Neigette (OHRN), Daniel Bélanger.
In order to prevent households in the sector from finding themselves “on the street on 1er July”, the organization must be creative this year, notes Mr. Bélanger, who can no longer count on monitoring the advertisements published on various online platforms to help tenants find housing. The OHRN thus turns to homeowners to encourage them to rent “part” of them to tenants.
“When we have no options on the market, we have to work with citizens to find options that are viable for them,” summarizes Daniel Bélanger. As for the PSL of the Legault government, it is of little use in Rimouski, for lack of “available housing”, he says.
Joined by The dutythe office of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, claims to be already preparing for the 1er July. The minister also had a meeting with the housing offices of the province “a few days ago” to ensure that “everything is in place” in anticipation of this moving period. An announcement will also take place “soon” to encourage municipalities to “offer support” to tenants in need, wrote press officer Bénédicte Trottier Lavoie.
“To do this, our government will make monies available,” she added.