The Legault government has increased the number of social and affordable housing units it wants to build by the end of the year in Quebec and is releasing $128 million to finance the operating costs of these units. , which will be spread across the province.
Quebec and Ottawa thus announced on Tuesday the details of an agreement concerning the second phase of the rapid initiative for the creation of housing, which had been the subject of a first announcement last August. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing then reported the construction of “more than 1,300 units” by the end of 2022. This target now reaches 1,458 social and affordable housing units, including some units financed by AccèsLogis, but who needed an extra boost to see the light of day quickly.
“These are projects that we must absolutely build in a short period of 12 months. So you can see that it was really urgent to respond to the clienteles who needed it, ”said the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, on Tuesday during a virtual press conference. She then acknowledged that several projects funded by AccèsLogis in recent years had until now been “difficult to achieve”, due to a lack of available funds.
All of these units are included in 79 projects across the province. 119 units should see the light of day by the end of the year in Montreal, 135 in Gatineau, 66 in Longueuil, 48 in Laval and 35 in Quebec City.
The Mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, also welcomed this announcement on Tuesday, at a time when the waiting list to obtain a social housing unit in the metropolis has more than 23,000 names and rents continue to climb in The city.
“Across the metropolitan area of Montreal, there is a shortage of affordable housing, an increase in property values and growing needs to accommodate vulnerable people,” said the office of the mayor, in a written statement. Ms. Plante thus hopes that the units announced on Tuesday “will help meet the crying needs of the metropolis and will improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable people whom we must support”.
Needs in the region
Moreover, 62 social and affordable housing projects – therefore the vast majority – will be carried out outside major centres, where the housing crisis is increasingly felt in the context of urban sprawl. In several municipalities, such as Rimouski, Granby and Drummondville, the rental housing vacancy rate is now approaching 0%, according to a recent report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“I know that the needs are in the big cities, but in the regions as well,” said Ms. Laforest, who wants to “accelerate the pace of construction” of social and affordable housing across the province.
The amount provided by the federal government for this project remains the same, at nearly $338 million. However, the Legault government announced on Tuesday that it will provide an additional $128 million to operate the social housing units planned over a 20-year period and support tenants eligible for the rent supplement program (PSL).
In the social housing that will be built, eligible tenants will pay 25% of their income for housing. Affordable units, for their part, will be offered at a rent between this very low threshold and the “median cost” on the market, indicated Ms. Laforest.
“It’s about making sure that a worker can go home at the end of the day and not have to choose between paying the rent and putting food on the table,” the federal minister argued on Tuesday. of Housing, Ahmed Hussen.
Many of the units that will be built will serve specific clienteles. The list of projects that should see the light of day this year includes, in particular, 350 housing units for seniors, 102 units intended for Aboriginal communities, as well as more than 200 housing units for people at risk of becoming homeless and just as many for those with mental health issues, among others.
“This is good news because it makes it possible to meet the crying needs of people in situations of great vulnerability”, reacted to the Homework spokesperson for the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment, Véronique Laflamme. She also recalls that the pandemic has exacerbated in small municipalities several social problems formerly associated with large centers, including visible homelessness.
Ms. Laflamme now hopes that the next federal government budget will provide additional funds to materialize a third phase of this low-rent housing unit funding initiative.