The abandonment of the AccèsLogis program compromises the construction of hundreds of social and community housing units. In Parc-Extension, a project with 31 units may not see the light of day, while two projects totaling 155 units in the Côte-des-Neiges district, as well as 230 units in Centre-Sud, are also threatened. Hundreds of tenants are waiting for subsidized housing in these three neighborhoods, including a large proportion of low-income and recent immigrants.
While only a few tens of millions of dollars are missing to unblock these projects, the CAQ government has just announced that it will give $350 million to the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and the Mouvement Desjardins so that they can deliver “social” housing and community”. Still no additional funding for AccèsLogis, even though the minister has been repeating for weeks that it is wrong to say that this program has been abandoned.
However, only 500 new social housing units have been announced in four years. The sums granted to deliver the units scheduled for ten years are however insufficient, despite the electoral commitment made by François Legault in 2018. Result: hundreds of housing units, among the 15,000 promised for years, do not are still not funded as they should be.
Currently, tens of thousands of tenants across Quebec are struggling to find decent housing that respects their ability to pay, rents are skyrocketing on the private rental market and residential instability is worsening, which has many consequences. on the physical and mental health of the persons concerned, including children. 1er July 2022 was catastrophic, as feared, with an alarming number of households unable to find accommodation and having to be referred to municipal services for emergency assistance, there where there are. Several other tenants have signed a lease for a dwelling with a rent that is far too expensive for their means, too small for their family or in poor or condition, while some have had to change neighborhoods or cities to be able to find housing.
The AccèsLogis program has contributed, over the past twenty-five years, to the construction of thousands of social and community housing units. These units meet the needs of a wide variety of groups, among which we can mention low-income families and seniors, immigrant households, urban Aboriginal people, survivors of domestic violence and their children, as well as several tenants with special needs.
For tenants waiting for a housing cooperative project, a non-profit housing organization or a project led by a municipal office, abandoning AccèsLogis is a real affront and a broken promise. This deprives them of decent housing, truly affordable rents, control over their housing conditions and security of tenure.
AccèsLogis cannot respond, on its own, to the current housing crisis. However, this program is a central component of a broader strategy, which aims to increase and sustain a stock of truly affordable housing for all tenants, and not just for those whose incomes are sufficient to meet the drastic increase rents of the last years.
We won’t cut corners: abandoning AccèsLogis means abandoning low- and modest-income tenants. It also endangers community organizations dedicated to housing in Quebec, which work tirelessly to provide social and community housing and have been resisting, year after year, federal disengagement since 1994.
Given the shortage of affordable rental housing and social housing, we demand the revival and improvement of AccèsLogis. Now is not the time for half measures: massive reinvestment is needed in the development and maintenance of the social and community housing stock, which will, among other things, enable projects to be completed as soon as possible and limit the many late fees caused by inadequate funding.
By maintaining uncertainty about the future of social housing, by weakening the AccèsLogis program and by initiating the privatization of housing assistance programs, the CAQ government will have contributed to one of the most significant setbacks in the right to housing in Quebec. .