If she resurfaces on 1er July each year, the housing crisis is neither sudden nor temporary. By the seriousness of the human tragedies caused by the stratospheric increase in rents, one can only think of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Some conveniently attribute the scarcity of affordable rents, which affects nearly 40% of Quebecers, or 1.3 million units, to the pandemic and inflation! Let’s ask THE question: how many look to the future without worry? The construction of social housing, although imperative, will not solve everything.
The nature of the beast
The housing crisis is one of the front lines between a society struggling to maintain its democratic hopes of equality and the ferocious surge in the financial and housing markets. An increasing number of small owners have become entrepreneurs by transforming their accommodation into tourist units for short-term rental.
Faced with this rapid, often mindless alteration of housing, the tenant, who does not have the assets to acquire his own residence or the savings to invest in real estate, finds himself radically alone in a situation over which he has no control. . The assignment of the lease that we want to withdraw from it and the rent register seen as a means of mitigation cannot counterbalance the imbalance of supply and demand.
To date, no legal provision in the country explicitly establishes the right to housing, although various regulatory frameworks and incentive programs somewhat support the spirit.
We can refer to an observation made in 1991 by the UN Committee responsible for the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966. Among the conditions for the realization of the Covenant, the ability to pay tenants who do not cut corners on other basic needs. We are far from that.
The solution can only be political
We can no longer be satisfied with letting the laws of the market play by trying to soften its harshness through scattered measures. It must be recognized that major and concerted political action is essential to restore a lasting balance that Bill 31 does not announce.
The government must convene an urgent extraordinary meeting of the main players in real estate: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and its Ivanhoé Cambridge fund, the Fonds immobilier de la FTQ, Fondaction de la CSN, major developers and private investors, associations of owners , tenants, housing cooperatives. Not to mention the courageous social organizations such as Interloge and SOLIDES, which have bought buildings outright to transform them into social housing.
Can we encourage the owners of short-term rental apartments to transform these apartments into long-term apartments for a period of five years by granting them credits or subsidies equivalent to $5,000?
Can we conceive of a temporary freeze on rents in the short term, until the market catches its breath and long-lasting solutions emerge?
In the immediate future, can a national unit be set up to coordinate the current efforts of MRCs and municipalities?
So many avenues that could be tackled concurrently with maintaining the assignment of leases and adopting the rent register.