Twenty-eight people with mental health issues will now have a home in a newly opened rooming house on Rachel Street in Plateau Mont-Royal.
“We are addressing very vulnerable people, at very high risk of homelessness, with mental health issues. For many of those who are going to live here, the bedroom is their first home after hospitalization, a space that they can make their own,” said Claire Garnier, secretary of the board of directors of Habitation Montréal, the non-profit organization that led the project.
During the press conference held Monday in the presence of elected officials from the three levels of government who funded the $5.4 million initiative, Ms.me Garnier said he is concerned that such projects may no longer be possible in the future due to changes to Quebec’s social housing funding programs.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Quebec will allocate a rent supplement, which will allow future residents to pay only 25% of their income for housing.
“If we were looking to make a second home, in the current state of the programs, we would no longer be able to do it, she lamented. Currently, there is no longer an offer of programs that would make it possible to finance this type of project in the same way. »
For the most vulnerable populations, we really need social housing, including support and community support, and not just affordable housing, she added. This is what allows them to avoid “finding themselves taken by the throat by a rent which increases drastically and considering camping on the edge of a highway”, she notes.
Change of program
The Rachel Street project received $2.7 million from the Government of Quebec through the AccèsLogis Montréal program, as well as $820,912 from the Government of Canada, as part of the Initiative for the Rapid Creation of Housing (ICRL). ) Big cities. Quebec will also allocate a rent supplement, which will allow future residents to pay only 25% of their income for housing. The Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM), for its part, will finance an amount of $820,912 and the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins de Montreal will grant one million in mortgage loans.
However, AccèsLogis was eliminated by the government of François Legault, who replaced it with the Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), a funding program for affordable housing, and not strictly social housing for the most disadvantaged, which which has been decried by several community housing organizations.
Present at the press conference, the Quebec Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, defended the decision of her government.
“The Quebec Affordable Housing Program targets exactly the same clienteles. By adding the Rent Support Program to it, it becomes social housing,” assured the Minister, who affirmed that the new financing method will be more rigorous and will make it possible to accelerate construction starts.
She promises that she will present a comprehensive housing plan in the fall, which will put forward solutions to deal with the current crisis.