The City of Montreal has only approved one social housing project of 86 units since the creation of the Regulation for a mixed metropolis, on 1er April 2021. It is now banking on regulatory changes to encourage more developers to build social housing or offer land rather than opting for financial compensation.
As of August 31, the City had signed 164 agreements with developers subject to this regulation, the objective of which is to facilitate the development of social and affordable housing in Montreal. The projects subject to this regulation currently total more than 8,860 housing units built or in the process of being built.
These agreements should ultimately make it possible to deliver 660 social housing units, or approximately 7.5% of all units targeted, while 158 affordable rental housing units are planned, if financial support from Quebec and Ottawa is there. . The City is thus far from having achieved the initial target of this regulation, revised several times since, which was to provide 20% social housing in real estate projects subject to this housing policy.
In addition, out of all the social housing planned, only one project of 86 units has been approved and put under construction since the creation of this regulation. A situation which can be explained by the fact that this regulation provides a way out for developers who prefer to provide financial compensation to the City rather than include social or affordable housing in their projects. This is how the City has raised 25.6 million since 1er April 2021, almost as many as in 15 years under its previous inclusion strategy.
“Obviously, the results are not there,” sighs in an interview the spokesperson for the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment, Véronique Laflamme. When it becomes “more profitable” to pay financial compensation to the City than to offer affordable apartments, “we end up with real estate projects that leave no room for social housing,” she laments.
Regulatory changes
The City of Montreal intends to propose new modifications to this regulation at the next municipal council, in November, in order to increase over three years the financial contributions that will have to be paid by developers who are unable to include social housing in their real estate projects. This increase will apply gradually from 2024. At the same time, the City will increase the amount it grants to developers who agree to transfer land intended for social housing projects.
“The context is difficult, land values have really exploded and basically, when we ask developers to do their fair share, well the fair share, it is not there,” admitted Monday the president of the executive committee, Benoit Dorais, to emphasize the importance of increasing the “financial penalties” imposed on developers who refuse to include social housing in their projects. “We want housing to literally be created,” insisted Mr. Dorais.
The opposition party Ensemble Montréal, for its part, fears that these regulatory changes will further slow down housing starts in the metropolis.
“These modifications demonstrate that Projet Montréal understands absolutely nothing about the issues that the real estate market is currently experiencing while construction costs have exploded by 30% in recent years,” responded Julien Hénault-Ratelle, the party’s spokesperson on matters. of housing. It is not by asking developers to pay more that we will increase the number of affordable housing units in the metropolis. With this logic, the Plante administration will accelerate the exodus of real estate developers and sign the death warrant for construction starts. »
The opposition party is instead calling for a reduction in municipal bureaucracy to facilitate the granting of permits for the construction of new housing.
With Jeanne Corriveau