Three-quarters of low-rent housing (HLM) in Montreal are in poor or very poor condition and the situation is deteriorating rapidly, the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) revealed on Thursday.
This report was made public as part of the annual accountability exercise for municipal bodies, carried out in the wake of the budget presented on Tuesday.
” The park [de HLM] has suffered from under-investment by governments for many years,” lamented Danielle Cécile, Executive Director of the OMHM, before the Finance Commission of the City of Montreal. “We have a good part of our park which is really, really — we’re not exaggerating — in poor condition. »
According to OMHM documentation, 34% of HLM buildings in Montreal are in “poor condition” and 41% are in “very poor condition”, for a total of 75%. The OMHM manages 838 HLM buildings, which have a total of more than 20,000 apartments.
The situation has deteriorated compared to last year, when 66% of OMHM HLMs were considered to be in “poor” or “very poor” condition.
Montreal HLMs have an average age of 45 years, but some – installed in buildings already built – are significantly older. They accumulate “a maintenance deficit of $955 million,” according to the OMHM document.
According to Danielle Cécile, some HLMs are in such poor condition that demolishing them and rebuilding them would cost less than renovating them.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Vacant low-rent housing in Montreal
Glimmer of hope, according to the official: a check for 94 million announced by Quebec last year for the rehabilitation of HLM.
“It’s a good step forward. It allowed us to direct this money to our barricaded homes, said Ms.me Cecile. Honestly, next year I think you’re going to see changes in the state of our park. In 2021, the OMHM indicated that “more than 340 low-rent housing units” were uninhabitable due to their condition.
The OMHM has approximately 24,000 households on its waiting list.
Composting down
Many other services were heard Thursday before the Finance Commission of the City of Montreal in order to take stock of 2022 and justify their 2023 budget.
Among them, municipal officials responsible for the environment revealed that Montrealers have been composting less and less for two years, despite the expansion of brown bin collection.
The number of doors served is increasing, but the amount of table scraps being composted will have decreased by around 4% by the end of 2022 compared to the previous year.
“There has been a decrease this year,” confirmed Roger Lachance, director of the service, before the Commission. “There are certain factors that we suspect, in particular the effect of the pandemic on the participation rate, a reduction perhaps a little in the Montreal population. There is also the economic slowdown. »
This is the second year in a row where a decrease in the amount of organic matter thrown into the compost has been recorded.
Montrealers have composted just under 104,000 tonnes of organic matter this year. In 2020, it was more than 115,000 tons.
In total, 72% of Montreal homes are currently served by compost collection. The environment department continues to implement the program in buildings with eight or more units. Nearly 4,000 businesses are also served.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
In total, 72% of Montreal homes are currently served by compost collection.
Possible way to increase the use of the brown bin: only pick up “real” garbage cans once every two weeks. Mr. Lachance and his assistant responsible for residual materials, Arnaud Budka, indicated that pilot projects in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and in Saint-Léonard had produced good results. Residents use their brown bin 20% more (which continues to be picked up weekly, like the recycling bin).
On the other hand, “there is a lot of support that is required, it is a transition that is not easy for the citizen,” indicated Mr. Budka. No plan to extend these pilot projects to the entire City has yet been announced.
Paralyzed construction sites
In addition, Roger Lachance confirmed that the trade dispute which is paralyzing the construction of its two compost processing plants continues, four months after its outbreak. The contractor EBC asks to be paid more by Veolia, which obtained the municipal contract. In return, Veolia is asking for more funds from Montreal.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Deserted construction site in Saint-Laurent
EBC workers completely deserted the sites, located in Saint-Laurent and Montreal East, last summer. Projects are 50% and 90% complete, respectively. In October, the City of Montreal announced that ancillary and wintering work was underway, but the projects themselves are still on hold.
“The file is evolving very slowly, too slowly for our taste. Not much development since [octobre], said Mr. Lachance. We are pushing for the file to move forward. »