After years of underfunding the maintenance of social housing in Quebec, the money is finally there, rejoices the person in charge of housing on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Benoit Dorais. But the work to be done is colossal, he warns.
More than 3,200 social housing units are vacant in the 10 largest cities in Quebec, show data provided by the municipal housing offices that cover these sectors and compiled by The duty. Of the lot, more than 70%, or approximately 2,300 apartments, are managed by the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM).
This vacancy rate is partly explained by the usual turnover of tenants which occurs on the margins of July 1, but also because several OMHM buildings are unoccupied due to major work in progress or which has been planned there for some time. time. A situation that Benoit Dorais attributes to the lack of funding for the maintenance of social housing in recent years by the Quebec government.
“For about a dozen years, regardless of the governments in place, the offices did not have the money to do renovations in the buildings, whether they were minor renovations or renovations for which we had to redo kitchens complete, bathrooms or even change the doors, windows, roof […] or balconies that threaten to collapse,” lists the elected official responsible for housing in Montreal. The lack of funds for the maintenance of social housing, which are aging, has thus contributed to the current vacancy rate, estimates Mr. Dorais. It reached 11% in Montreal and 4.7% province-wide, according to data compiled by The duty.
“When you are given half of what you need [en matière d’entretien des logements sociaux]it gives the current situation, regardless of which government is in place, ”he says, thus sending an arrow to the three governments of different allegiances that have succeeded each other in Quebec in the last 12 years.
The conclusion of an expected agreement between Quebec and Ottawa on housing has freed up $2.2 billion to renovate low-income housing in the province by 2028. A new funding program stemming from this sum has been announced by the Société d’habitation du Québec last month.
“But you have to understand that we are in a historical catch-up everywhere in Quebec, so it will really take time,” warns Mr. Dorais. The OMHM will first have to issue calls for tenders to carry out major work in some of its boarded-up buildings, then contracts will have to be signed before work can take place in the apartments concerned. In short, patience is required, warns the elected municipal official, while rejoicing that sufficient funds are finally released to maintain the thousands of social housing units in poor condition in the province. “Now that we have more funding, we have to move forward. »
Criticized remarks
Friday, in The duty, the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, considered it “unacceptable” to note that “thousands” of low-rent housing are vacant in Quebec. “For me, it just doesn’t work! “Wrote the Minister, calling on the municipal housing offices of the province to “accelerate” the pace so that social housing which “requires work” is quickly rented again.
Comments criticized by the Liberal Party of Quebec and Quebec solidaire, who see it as a way for the Legault government to shirk its responsibility in the deterioration of the state of social housing in the province in recent years.
“We deplore the words of the minister who refuses to recognize the responsibility of his government in these delays in renovations”, reacted in writing the liberal deputy Virginie Dufour, spokesperson for the opposition party on the files concerning housing. She also says that she finds it “insulting” for the administrators of municipal offices in the province “that the Minister of Housing suggests that this delay is their responsibility”. “It is becoming a very bad habit for the CAQ to blame others for their own inaction and delays in execution,” adds Ms. Dufour.
The same goes for the solidarity deputy Andrés Fontecilla, according to whom the large number of vacant social housing units due to the major work that must take place in Quebec is the result of years of “laxity and non-intervention on the part of government to keep this asset in good condition. “The government has been slow to develop an effective solution to renovate these social housing units, when we need them more than ever,” he laments.