The Coalition avenir Québec is hopeless when it comes to social housing.
The Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, told our colleague Maxime Bergeron on Monday that Quebec will end the AccèsLogis program, which has been building almost all social housing since the early 2000s.
The Minister also launched a full-scale attack on AccèsLogis and the groups that support housing coops/NPOs/housing offices. She compares AccèsLogis to “a free-for-all, where everyone deposits [son projet]it will take the time it takes, and it will cost the price it will cost”.1
If the Government of Quebec is looking for a culprit to explain the lack of social housing built for a decade, it only has to look in the mirror instead of throwing gratuitous accusations.
If 15,000 social housing units have been “blocked” for years, it is because the Quebec government, under Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard, stopped calculating inflation on AccèsLogis subsidies starting in 2009. This ridiculous idea derailed the program.
In the 2000s, AccèsLogis initially covered 50% of the construction costs of social housing. The city (15%) and the mortgage on future rents (35%) covered the rest.
Now, the Quebec subsidy only covers 32% of the actual construction costs. Result: there is a lack of money to complete the financing, and the projects do not start. (Yes, the problem is as silly as that.)
Since 2018, the Legault government has added an additional 907 million to “unblock” 9,036 underfunded AccèsLogis units: 5,457 units have been built, 3,579 are under construction. But 6652 of the 15,000 units are still blocked.
They lack an average of 18% of their funding, and the AccèsLogis fund is empty. Minister Duranceau says she wants to grant additional funding for “a good part” of these dwellings. It would be the least.
The Legault government will therefore replace AccèsLogis with its new Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), created in 2022.
AccèsLogis had to be modernized and greatly simplified. We agree with the objective of shortening construction times, reducing bureaucracy, even opening the door to private developers.
The problem with the PHAQ is that it has too many major shortcomings.
Firstly, the PHAQ is first and foremost an affordable housing program for the first part of the middle class, whereas AccèsLogis was a social housing program for the poorest (50% of AccèsLogis units had to be housing social; there is no minimum ratio in the PHAQ). It’s like undressing Pierre to dress Paul. While Peter is more deprived than Paul!
Second, it allows the private sector to build subsidized social housing and recover it by abolishing its social vocation after between 10 and 35 years. We are not against the contribution of the private sector. But not under these conditions.
Third, the Quebec subsidy has been improved, but it is still underestimated. In theory, it covers 45% of the cost, in practice it is 35%. 10% of funding will be missing. We mitigate the problem without solving it.
We are not the only ones to have doubts about the PHAQ. The Union of Quebec Municipalities believes that “it’s not better” than AccèsLogis with its current flaws.
In a hurry, Minister Duranceau wants to withdraw funding from any PHAQ project whose construction does not start for 12 months.
We can’t wait to see how she goes about it.
In June 2022, the PHAQ financed its first 1741 units. Quebec specified that the construction of certain projects could begin as early as fall 2022. How many are currently under construction? Zero. It’s going badly.
The promoters of several projects had to wait six months… after Quebec to obtain their number of rent supplement benefits. You can not make that up !
When it was adequately funded, AccèsLogis worked well: an average of 1,900 units were built per year between 2005 and 2012. This is better than the PHAQ, which funded 1,741 units in its first year.
We would have liked Quebec to improve AccèsLogis instead of throwing it in the trash. That said, it’s always possible to improve a badly put together program.
What is even more worrying is that the Legault government underestimates the need for social housing.
Based on figures from the Ministry of Finance, François Legault estimates that Quebec needs 26,700 new social and affordable housing units by 2026: 14,700 social housing units and 12,000 affordable housing units.
Last week, the Prime Minister ridiculed Québec solidaire’s proposal to build 50,000 social housing units in four years. “It’s all a joke,” he said.
The problem with Mr. Legault’s clear-cut analysis is that there are currently 37,149 households waiting for social housing in Quebec.2
37,149 is closer to 50,000 than 14,700.
2. The waiting list is not a perfect measure (ex.: applications in Montreal are not updated each year because there are too many), but it is the best indication we have for the moment.