“Young couple or single person”, “Single person or couple without children”, “This apartment is too small for you”, “The children will be a nuisance, it’s not made of concrete here”.
These are some of the responses that Daphné Cyr received when looking for accommodation for herself and her two children aged 3 and 5 in shared custody.
After a separation, the translator moved a few times to find herself in a three and a half room apartment in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, where the whole family sleeps in the same bed. As they are cramped, she is looking for bigger accommodation.
She can afford to pay up to $1,600 in monthly rent, but faces landlords’ refusal to accept children in their apartments.
I’ve had dozens of rejections because of the children. The owners have so many requests that they often don’t respond when I say I have children. They have the big end of the stick, they can refuse whoever they want, even if it’s illegal.
Daphne Cyr
It is in fact discriminatory to refuse the rental of accommodation for one of the reasons provided for in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, in particular race and color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, i.e. a person’s family situation (being single, married or divorced, having children or not), age, religion or social condition, i.e. the social situation of a person due to their income, their profession or their level of education (being a student, retired or unemployed, for example), indicates the organization Éducaloi.
“No consequences”
But some owners do not hide it and specify in their advertisements that children are not welcome.
“I’m not that desperate. We have a roof over our heads. But I am just very angry to see owners who discriminate and who know that there will be no consequences,” denounces Daphné Cyr.
The owner of a “small” four and a half who himself indicated in an advertisement that he was looking for “a couple or a single person” denies discrimination.
“The accommodation must be adapted to the situation of the people, be aware of what is preferable depending on the size of the place,” says this owner-occupier of a triplex in Verdun, who requested anonymity for fear of ‘being taken to task. “I am not against children, I have already had them in my accommodation. And we welcome people of all nationalities, without discrimination. We maintain our homes well, and we want our tenants to be comfortable, so that we can have good neighborly relations with them. »
A person who believes they are the victim of discrimination can file a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights.
No one is immune
The housing crisis that is raging throughout Quebec means that any tenant risks losing their roof and joining the hordes of people looking for an apartment, with a level of concern that increases as time passes.
Housing committees see dozens of such stories every day in different neighborhoods of Montreal and in all regions of Quebec.
We are so overwhelmed by evictions that we do not have time to help all the tenants, there are too many requests.
Annie Lapalme, community organizer for Entraide Logement Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and the BAILS Committee
“We are underfunded,” she said, “so we cannot cope with the massacre. And it gets worse every day! »
At the Parc-Extension Action Committee (CAPE), coordinator André Trépanier indicates that interventions have increased by more than 20% this year, compared to 2022-2023. This year, 40% of the interventions concerned rent increases, 20% the various types of eviction requests and 20% the condition of the housing (half of the requests in this section concerned the presence of mice, cockroaches or bedbugs). bed).
The CAPE also has difficulty responding to all the tenants: it has had to add chairs in its waiting room and long lines form before the office opens.
In this file, we present to you people who find themselves in such situations, and who suffer from them in different ways.