Ten years ago now, we became commissioners for the People’s Commission on the right to housing organized by FRAPRU (Front d’action populaire en réménagement urbain). We traveled through the different regions of Quebec to meet various populations and hear their testimonies on issues relating to housing. Our reportEmergency in residence, concluded in particular on the need for a strong and firm government action in favor of social housing aimed at protecting the most vulnerable against a housing market which continued to exclude them.
In Longueuil, we heard this single mother on social assistance reporting the respiratory health problems of her two young children, for whom the mold on the walls of her apartment was getting into their lungs. Despite medical advice from public health and the support of community organizations and the family, this young mother was unable to have her home repaired by the landlord or to move for lack of means.
We met this elderly woman from the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, heard in Gaspé, evoking with sadness her hidden homelessness experienced for a few months, to stay close to her husband in long-term care. From a makeshift bed in his bedroom to staying with friends, she had exhausted her material and relational resources, unable to move to be closer to her husband.
The story of this Aboriginal woman, met in Sept-Îles, testifying to the discrimination she experienced in finding housing that would allow her to continue her studies, remains vivid in our minds. But also that of this man in Gaspésie who, suffering from mental health problems, victim of stigmatization, told us about the stress that made him live the difficulty of finding housing in the private market considering his condition.
We have heard many testimonies in the different regions of women, evoking the harassment and sexual violence they suffered from private landlords, concierges, stuck in buildings from which they could not move, for lack of finding other dwellings, most often held by the same owners.
There is also in our memories this woman in her sixties, mother of a single-parent family, recounting how the fact of having lived in an HLM had protected her and had protected her children, by allowing her to financially support their activities. sports and their academic success thanks to a rent that did not eat up too much of his income.
For several years now, daily reading of the newspapers, as well as discussions with neighbours, co-workers and family, have been so many testimonies of a housing crisis which continues to grow.
The transformations of resources for seniors, the minimalist construction of social housing and the constant increase in rents are fueling a market threatening the living conditions of a growing number of people. At a time of climate change, the forced distancing of individuals from their place of work, their support networks, their children’s school or daycare is an aberration.
But the reality is that for many families, in the regions such as in Montreal, we always have to go further to find a rent or a mortgage that our income supports. For many others, it is necessary to accept living in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions that undermine their effective right to housing.
Letting the market take its course also hinders economic development, because, due to a lack of housing, workers cannot be there in many regions. Finally, for others, living in a situation of homelessness has become a reality because of the impossibility for these people to find housing. Shelters, accommodations, motels and hotels welcome the new faces of homelessness a little more each day.
The solutions are known and they were generally listed in our 2012 report. In fact, to support an effective right to housing, the State must play a major role in developing a public housing service by building social housing, in regulating rent costs, to monitor the quality of housing, to protect the certifications of the different living environments, etc.
In fact, how can you exercise your right to education, health, justice, work, equality, etc., when you don’t have a little space to study, when you don’t don’t have access to a bed to make up for the fatigue and exhaustion of a degrading job, that we have to choose between groceries and rent or even that we face companies with rich means to prevent us from resorting to in time before the relevant authorities in full equality, in dignity and in law?
It is time to end the policy of “letting do”; it is urgent to act to support measures that ensure the well-being of everyone, particularly vulnerable people, and to promote social cohesion and prosperity for each and every one of us.
* Co-signed this text:
Marcel Duhaime, activist of the League of Rights and Freedoms
Dolores Durbau, receptionist at ACHIM (Community Alternatives for Housing and Intervention in the Environment)
Martin Gallié, Professor, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM
Lucie Lamarche, Professor, Department of Legal Sciences, UQAM
Shirley Roy, Professor, Department of Sociology, UQAM
Barbara Rufo, social psychologist and human rights activist
Simon Tremblay-Pépin, Professor, School of Social Innovation
Élisabeth-Bruyère, Saint Paul University
Jean Trudelle, former president of the FNEEQ-CSN, Activist at Debout pour l’école!