Two years after the launch of the Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), organizations and developers whose projects were selected under it are denouncing the “obstacle course” to which they are subjected and which delays, or even threatens, the survival of real estate projects, noted The duty. Inventory.
Six. This is the number of housing units financed by the PHAQ that are currently “operated,” and therefore built and occupied, confirmed the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ) to DutyThese are social housing units located in Mont-Laurier.
Quebec has invested $300 million in this program in 2022, with the aim of accelerating the creation of thousands of social and affordable housing units in the province to counterbalance the AccèsLogis program, which is doomed to disappear.
In an email, the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, qualified this lackluster assessment. She indicated that 948 housing units financed by the PHAQ are “currently under construction,” compared to 721 a month ago. “We therefore expect that a very good number of units will be added to the PHAQ unit balance by the end of the summer,” stated her office, which reiterated that the Legault government’s objective is “to quickly increase the number of affordable housing units” in the province.
“We must also consider that the PHAQ is a young program, and we are therefore in continuous improvement mode to simplify it and make it more efficient,” adds Minister Duranceau’s office.
There is a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.
A “disappointing” program
On the ground, several organizations whose projects were selected in 2022 or 2023 under this program describe a path strewn with obstacles that they must overcome to obtain the required funding from the SHQ before starting to build housing. “It’s an obstacle course,” says the president of the solidarity cooperative L’Envolée, Joanne Morin, who wants to build affordable housing for autistic adults in Sherbrooke.
In recent months, the organization has come up against the PHAQ’s requirement that part of the selected projects be financed by the municipality where the development is planned. The City of Sherbrooke has thus committed to transferring land to the organization, but this transfer is slow to materialize, explains M.me Morin, who fears exceeding the deadlines imposed by the provincial body to launch this project. “We have a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” she says, fearing that she has “worked for years on a project that will not succeed.”
François Soucy, the general director of Maison Richelieu, which offers accommodation to teenage girls in difficulty in Quebec City, was hoping to begin construction of 10 housing units last month as part of the PHAQ, which had selected his project in 2022. But this project will have to wait.
“It’s disappointing. We would have liked to start our project. It’s there, the plans are there, and we believe in it a lot,” Mr. Soucy emphasizes. However, what’s missing is official approval from the SHQ — and the funding that comes with it — so that the organization can begin this construction project, ideally this fall, he adds.
Special needs
Several organizations wishing to set up accommodation resources for women who are victims of violence or people with mental health problems have noted that this program struggles to meet their specific needs.
This is the case of Espace-Vie TSA, an organization that wants to build nine housing units for young autistic adults with significant support needs. The initial cost of construction is nearly $700,000; a high bill that can be explained by the fact that these apartments must be built with more expensive “resilient materials,” explains the organization’s board chair, Marie-Josée Dutil.
However, the PHAQ does not have a “vision for specific projects” and therefore does not increase its subsidies accordingly. A situation which forces the organizations concerned to multiply the sources of financing to realize accommodation projects meeting very specific needs, noted The duty.
“I understand that this is a program to increase construction and the number of doors, but perhaps we should also consider all citizens with different profiles, which is not the case at present,” said Mr.me Dutil. She intends to rely on a donation campaign to complete the financing of this project.
Tight deadlines
Projects selected under the PHAQ are threatened by the 12 to 18 month deadline by which construction must begin. This requirement for efficiency is in fact hampered by the bureaucratic burden of the SHQ, which is piloting this program, according to several players in the real estate sector.
“We are able to do something quickly,” but the funding must be available and easy to access, which is not the case within the PHAQ, says Denise Godbout, general manager of Habitations l’Équerre, who is trying to build dozens of affordable housing units in Sherbrooke. “The steps to get funding accepted are appalling,” she notes.
The SHQ indicates for its part that, to date, 2 projects that had been selected in 2022 out of 41 “have been cancelled”. “Our ambition is to implement the best options so that the projects are carried out as quickly as possible”, adds the organization. The PHAQ also plans that the amount that was allocated to a project that did not advance within the allotted time will be transferred to “another organization that will be able to start construction on its housing project more quickly”, specifies Minister Duranceau.