“Clogging a leak does not prevent the boat from sinking,” said the organization Vivre en ville, which unveiled a detailed report on Tuesday to offer avenues for structural solutions to the housing crisis to the next government of Quebec. .
Like the last municipal election campaign, the issue of access to home ownership and affordable rental housing, in a bubbling real estate market, will undoubtedly occupy a prominent place during the race that is taking shape on the scale provincial, in anticipation of the October 3 election.
Already, the Coalition avenir Québec has promised 11,700 social and affordable housing units within four years, a commitment deemed insufficient by several community groups, to which the Quebec Liberal Party has responded by proposing to build 50,000 social housing units within 10 year. The other formations should continue this ball of promises in the coming weeks.
However, there is no magic solution to the housing crisis, recalls the organization Vivre en ville, whose report of more than 60 pages called Open doors offers the various provincial political parties possible solutions so that they can tackle this phenomenon on all fronts.
“The image that I like to give is that our biggest problem is that we are in a sinking boat, illustrates Adam Mongrain, director of housing files for the organization, in an interview at the To have to. And plugging a leak doesn’t stop the boat from sinking. »
As the exodus to the suburbs continues, bringing with it a rise in rents on the outskirts of Montreal, the report suggests a revision of the current property tax model in cities that would favor densification and not urban sprawl . If municipal taxation were concentrated on the value of the land, the construction of high-rise housing would be valued at the expense of individual houses, since the first option would become more financially attractive, the report illustrates.
Cities could then better meet the housing needs of their residents, in addition to limiting the increase in their spending on safety, greening and road infrastructure, among other things, caused by urban sprawl, adds the document.
Focus on taxation
Cities like Montreal could also remove certain regulatory constraints that require owners to request exemptions to build buildings whose height deviates from that determined in their sector, estimates the professor at the School of Urban Planning and Architecture of landscape of the University of Montreal Jean-Philippe Meloche.
“The problem is that often we regulate the density to limit it,” says the expert. Thus, “the dice are stacked in favor of sprawl and not density” in several municipalities, also notes Mr. Mongrain.
In this regard, Vivre en ville recommends that the next government of Quebec consider the creation of “dynamic zoning” which would ensure that “the permitted density thresholds” would increase “as soon as the vacancy rate falls below a certain floor”. In order to limit the rapid resales of housing for speculative purposes, the organization also proposes that Quebec tax “strongly, even fully, the capital gain from all real estate sales”.
The report also recommends that the Cities and Towns Act be amended to facilitate the acquisition of land by municipalities, which could then promote real estate projects there. An idea welcomed by Julie Bourdon, the mayor of Granby, a city where 0.1% of rental units were unoccupied last year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The municipal administration also had to temporarily accommodate several people at the hotel during the period of removals from 1er July, unheard of in Granby.
“As cities, we are ready to do our part, but the funds must be available” to help them contribute to the development of social and affordable housing on their territory, mentions Ms.me Bumblebee. It also asks that cities have more “autonomy” to act in this direction.
As for the number of social housing units to be built, the Quebec government should set itself the concrete objective of offering a home to each of the tens of thousands of people on waiting lists across the province, believes Ms. Mongrain. “We’ll know we’ve built enough off-market housing when the waiting lists are empty. »