The means proposed by the administration of Valérie Plante to tackle the unsanitary conditions of rental housing in the metropolis raise the concerns and criticisms of various associations of owners and tenants, whose proposals are poles apart in tackling this issue.
In the whirlwind of the news of the last few weeks, the public consultation of the City of Montreal on its “Responsible landlord” certification project and the creation of a rent register on the scale of the metropolis has passed largely under the media radar. However, the thirty or so briefs submitted to the city’s website by citizens and various organizations testify to the importance of the issues raised. This process has sometimes led to heated discussions during the two public hearings held on May 31 and June 8 as part of this process.
Concretely, the project currently being analyzed by a public commission of the City aims to tackle the problem of unsanitary rental housing in Montreal while limiting the increase in the cost of rents. The certification under consideration thus aims to encourage owners of buildings with eight or more dwellings to maintain their rental buildings and to keep the City informed of their condition by sending it various information every five years. These must include the rent for the accommodation concerned, which will eventually be available in a public register.
The City’s plan, which provides for hefty fines for recalcitrants, will be implemented gradually, starting with buildings with 100 or more units from 2023 to gradually extend to those with 8 to 11 units by 2027.
“Perverse Effects”
Like various housing committees, the Montreal Regional Public Health Department (DRSP) deems the City’s intention to ultimately limit the application of this certification to buildings with eight or more dwellings, which represent 35% of of the city’s rental housing stock. The rent register should also be independent of this certification in order to apply to all rental housing in Montreal on an annual basis, believes the DRSP.
A proposal also shared by former city councilor Richard Ryan, who took part in this public consultation as a citizen. “The information, if it is every five years, it is obsolete”, launches the To have to Saturday the urban planning and housing enthusiast. This possible register will also have to be recognized by Quebec so that it can be used eventually by tenants wishing to have their rent fixed by the Administrative Housing Tribunal, also notes Mr. Ryan.
The Regroupement des Comités Logement et Associations de Tenants du Québec (RCLALQ) also expressed concern in its brief that an application limited to buildings with eight or more units of this certification would have “perverse effects” by encouraging real estate speculators to bet on the neighborhoods of Montreal on the outskirts of the city center where a majority of smaller rental buildings are concentrated.
“We would end up with a double standard”, illustrates the spokesperson for the RCLALQ, Martin Blanchard, who fears that the certification proposed by the City will create “a form of urban injustice” if it is only applied to a fraction of its rental units.
Mental Health
The Director General of the Corporation of Property Owners of Quebec (CORPIQ), Benoit Ste-Marie, for his part, reacted strongly to elected members of the City Commission responsible for urban planning and housing files on June 8. . In a public hearing, he argued that tenants – especially those with mental health issues or behavioral disorders – are responsible for the vast majority of housing unsanitary cases in Montreal.
CORPIQ’s brief, which calls for this certification project to be put on hold and for a new “objective” public consultation to be held, notably startled the mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, François Limoges, who did not not hide his annoyance in response to Mr. Ste-Marie.
“I remain a little wordless on some of your assertions”, launched the elected official during the public hearing on June 8. “When we talk about unsanitary housing in Montreal, we’re not talking about mental health. We are talking about housing where you would not want to install your son, your cousin, your mother, your sister. We are talking about housing that is so degraded that basic human conditions are not respected, ”added Mr. Limoges, who insisted on the responsibility of the owners in several documented cases of unsanitary conditions.
“We are trying to give the City of Montreal an additional tool to attack owners who are not doing their job,” he added.
The Quebec Landlords Association, for its part, is calling for the pure and simple abandonment of this project, which risks, according to its president, disinteresting owners in investing in the rental market, at a time when it is short of housing. The owners who will have to apply this certification also risk passing on the bill related to the management that this implies and the work that will have to be carried out in their dwellings to the tenants, warns Martin Messier in an interview. “There is no logic or vision in all this. It is very worrying. »
The municipal commission in charge of this file must make its recommendations to the City in September.