The housing stock of low-rental housing (HLM) in Quebec continues to deteriorate. The situation will only get worse as the costs of upgrading these buildings increase from year to year, denounce groups of tenants.
They are demanding that the provincial government keep its word and invest the approximately $2.2 billion announced to renovate the housing of the most disadvantaged.
“HLMs in Quebec represent an asset of 13 billion dollars, recalled Patricia Viannay, community organizer for the Federation of tenants of low-income housing in Quebec (FLHLMQ). It houses more than 64,000 households, yet there are tens of thousands of tenants living in indecent conditions that pose a risk to their health, safety and dignity. »
In two years, the number of buildings of the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ) deemed to be in poor or very poor condition has increased by 39%, deplores the FLHLMQ. Dwellings rated “D”, being in poor condition, or “E”, considered to be in very poor condition, increased from 18,644 in 2020 to 25,974 in 2022.
For the same period, the proportion of low-cost housing in the province in need of major work rose from 28.9% to 40.2%, denounced the FLHLMQ, which summoned the media in front of a building in the Montreal district Center -South barricaded since 2019 due to its uninhabitable nature.
According to the federation, refurbishing this six-unit multiplex intended for low-income families would have cost $271,000 in 2020. With inflation and the skyrocketing cost of building materials, it would now cost $438,000 to repair it. arrive at the same result. This is without taking into account the status of the building, which has gone from a “D” rating to an “E” rating.
On the island of Montreal alone, 285 buildings are rated “D” and 351 are rated “E”. The Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal estimates the amount needed over five years to keep them habitable at $955 million.
Widespread degradation
And while adequate financing to restore housing rated “D” and “E” to habitation is long overdue, the other dwellings are not much better maintained, which contributes to the general deterioration of the rental stock. In doing so, they too risk ending up in poor condition, warned Richard Gagné, president of the Montreal Residents’ Advisory Committee.
“If we don’t do anything, the park will shrink more and more; we will lose HLM, which are an essential need, he said. It is not normal that in Quebec, we are unable to house the poorest people. »
Carole Guilbault, who lives in a category “E” apartment, does not know if she would be able to afford housing in the Lasalle district, where she lives, if she lost her roof. “In my building, the windows are falling apart; there is work to be done in electricity and plumbing; the facade is damaged; the brick, the cement, all that falls; there is water flowing, ”she listed.
“We are still wondering how long we can stay here again,” added the tenant.
An agreement to respect
The FLHLMQ is asking the new Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, to honor her government’s commitment and invest the promised $2.2 billion in the renovation of low-rent housing, in at the rate of 400 million per year, half of which for apartments in the metropolis.
The FLHLMQ criticizes the government and the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, who had the Housing portfolio until the last stretch of 2022, for having reneged on an agreement signed in 2020 with the federal government, where some 275 million planned to renovate low-rent housing would have “rather served to finance other projects”, including the construction of new social housing. Barely 48.9 million were used to renovate existing housing, deplores the organization.
In 2016, the SHQ estimated that there were more than 700 low-rent buildings in poor condition, therefore rated D or E. This represented nearly 30% of the state-owned company’s housing stock.
The end of AccèsLogis decried
The FLHLMQ was accompanied by three opposition spokespersons for housing — Andrés Fontecilla for Québec solidaire, Virginie Dufour for the Liberal Party and Méganne Perry Mélançon for the Parti Québécois.
They all deplored the announced end of the AccèsLogis Québec program, an intention of Minister Duranceau reported by The Press Monday morning.
“It is deplorable. We need social housing, dropped Mme Dufour, MNA for Mille-Îles. The CAQ puts all its eggs in one basket, that of affordable housing, which is less and less affordable for more and more single-parent families and seniors. »
Mme Perry Melançon abounded in this direction. “It’s worrying,” she said. The vision of the Legault government, on the question of housing, favors people who have more means. With an announcement such as the end of AccèsLogis, it is people with low incomes who will suffer the impacts, while demand explodes in municipal housing offices with the rise in the cost of living and rents, and the stagnating minimum wage. »
Last to speak, Mr. Fontecilla did not mince his words. “This is a government that no longer believes in social housing. He prefers to put all his money to the benefit of private promoters,” said the member for Laurier-Dorion.
“The government’s inaction is jeopardizing an extremely large rental stock, which has taken decades to take shape, continued the elected representative. Everything is deteriorating at breakneck speed and more and more, we will find other barricaded buildings that will cost more and more to be renovated. »
“Inapplicable” programs
While elected officials reacted to the end of the AccèsLogis program, the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) went out to denounce the fact that the current programs supporting the construction of social housing are “particularly complex and inapplicable”.
The rise in costs attributable to the current inflationary context makes it almost impossible to carry out social housing projects on schedule, despite the increase in demand, deplored the president of the UMQ, Daniel Côté.
“After years of analysis and a project accepted by Quebec, the municipalities are faced with a cost increase which means that the project is put on hold. For the Quebec Affordable Housing Program, things are no better, because the down payments required are too high. We must streamline the processes, reduce the administrative burden, and above all, adjust the funding of the programs according to inflation, ”he pleaded in a press release.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for the news.