Of the ten cities chosen to host businessman Luc Maurice’s low-cost seniors’ residences, nine are well on their way. And apart from a few minor quibbles, they are all excited about the projects and have deployed unprecedented means to carry them out.
In Lévis, the city created a tailor-made “multidisciplinary team” for the Unitaînés project. This was necessary to meet deadlines, explains the head of the urban planning department, Hélène Jomphe. “We had people from all departments: engineering, legal, environment, urban planning, communications, etc.” The team met every Wednesday morning in recent months.
“It was exhausting,” admits M.me Jomphe, but all were very motivated because they were working on a project “for vulnerable people”.
Lévis is one of ten cities selected by Mission Unitaînés to build ten residences of 100 places each for low-income seniors in the region.
The idea came from businessman Luc Maurice, who wanted to create housing for seniors who cannot afford to pay for a place in residences like those of the Maurice Group, which he founded.
Mr. Maurice proposed to the governments to build 1,000 housing units in ten cities in a record time of two years. Quebec and Ottawa were to finance the project massively ($235 million) but Mr. Maurice committed in return to assume any cost overruns if there were any, in addition to injecting $5 million into the envelope himself.
Median income, a relative criterion
In October 2023, he reached out to various elected officials to solicit their help. When Saint-Hyacinthe Mayor André Beauregard received Luc Maurice’s email, he responded right away to schedule a meeting. “The vacancy rate has still gone up in Saint-Hyacinthe, but the housing that is available is very, very expensive. […] It is an invaluable gift that they have given us.”
In an interview on Radio-Canada on the 1er In July, Mr. Maurice said he had “identified the 20 cities in Quebec where the median income was the lowest.”
But in the end, some of the cities chosen are among the richest in Quebec, such as Lévis or Terrebonne. Conversely, others where the median income is below $30,000, such as Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, are not included.
The vacancy rate has still risen in Saint-Hyacinthe, but the housing that is available is very, very expensive. […] It is an invaluable gift that they have given us.
Asked about this, Caroline Sauriol, CEO of Mission Unitaînés, explains that her NPO based its work on an economic analysis by the firm Altus, which documented the median income not of the general population, but of seniors in each city. She also mentions that, in the largest cities, they targeted the boroughs where the median income was lower.
From the outset, other criteria weighed in the balance, including the ability of municipalities to commit to acting very quickly to launch construction sites from April 2024.
The key: the terrain
No construction site will have finally started so early. But, according to Mme Sauriol, this does not compromise the delivery schedule of April 2026.
Granby and Saint-Hyacinthe are the most advanced cities, and the first sods were broken in July. “We officially broke ground last week,” explained Granby Mayor Julie Bourdon in an interview last week. “The foundations are already poured and everything, so it’s progressing very well.”
To be chosen, the cities had to meet a series of conditions. But the key was the land. They had to have land available, which they already owned, and which was in a suitable location.
Granby chose to build the residence on a parking lot that it already owned downtown. In Saint-Hyacinthe, the city was able to proceed smoothly because it had land already reserved for social housing.
Above all, the land must not be contaminated, as this could delay the process. This is what led to the abandonment of the Quebec project earlier this week, according to Mission Unitaînés.
At least officially. Because Quebec ran into other problems with its project. Citizens living near the chosen site demanded that it be built elsewhere, and a community organization that already coveted the land accused the city of setting it aside.
In Saint-Hyacinthe, the same problem could have arisen in theory, since the land was already reserved for another affordable housing project by the non-profit organization Habitations Maska. But the city divided the land in two and closed a street to make room for everyone. And it is to Habitations Maska that the Unitaînés building will be transferred.
In Terrebonne, the city “was already in discussions with other groups” to develop the land, according to Charles Thériault, the director of economic development. But it was not “finalized” and the city had other interesting lots to offer them right next door.
Cities participating in Unitaînés
Helping hand from Minister Duranceau
To be selected, cities also had to commit to a three-year tax holiday. They also had to ensure that zoning permitted this type of construction, which required changes in many places.
In Lévis, one of the few stumbling blocks to the project concerned parking. Its regulations required that underground spaces be created for buildings of this size (100 dwellings). However, this was incompatible with Unitaînés’ plans, which do not provide for any underground parking.
A problem that the City has gotten around thanks to Minister France-Élaine Duranceau’s new housing law. Known for its measures targeting lease transfers, the former Bill 31 also gives cities extraordinary powers allowing them to circumvent their urban planning regulations to authorize projects. In any case, notes Mme Jomphe, “we are talking about a clientele that will have almost no cars.”
The City of Rimouski also used the new provisions of Bill 31, explains Mayor Guy Caron, to increase the number of permitted floors from four to six. The City, he says, “is starting to get used to” adapting in terms of housing since the arrival of outside developers, such as UTILE (student residences) and Angus with its 325-unit project.
In Terrebonne too, the project contravened parking standards, but the city council already had the power to grant the necessary exemptions.
In Montreal, too, it was necessary to circumvent the zoning, but the City was able to proceed quickly thanks to article 89 of its Charter, which allows for flexibility for social housing.
Same plans for everyone
The cities also had to accept the project plans as they were: concrete construction, rectangular format, six floors, etc.
According to Benoît Dorais, president of the executive committee of the City of Montreal, this is the main weakness of the experiment so far. “If it were to be done again, I would like us to have more flexibility.” “The City would have liked to play with the sizes, to make it possible, depending on the neighbourhood, to do four, eight or ten storeys.”
An opinion shared by the City of Lévis, whose project will be built on a key artery, Guillaume-Couture Boulevard. “We have an architectural integration plan for the sector, and we couldn’t apply it,” says Hélène Jomphe. “We could have played on the volume, marked the entrance a little more…”
For the rest, the participating cities have little to say about this project and believe that it is worth the effort. “It will free up spaces in other housing units,” says Rimouski Mayor Guy Caron.
Some point out that their Unitaînés residence costs them much less than other affordable housing initiatives. The City of Lévis, explains Mme Jomphe, injected the equivalent of 5.5 million dollars into the hundred doors of the Unitaînés project.
Meanwhile, another 11-unit project carried out under the Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ) has come to weigh down her finances by up to $10 million. “We’re elsewhere,” she says.
But that’s not the case everywhere. Mayor Julie Bourdon says her city’s investment in Unitaînés compares to its contribution to another project of comparable size in its territory.
Depending on the case, their contribution varies between 3.2 and 7 million, a sum that varies according to the value of the land and the tax breaks granted. But the financial impact varies in the long term.
Thus, it is in Terrebonne that the investment is the highest because of the high value of the land, but the City thinks it can get a good part of it reimbursed by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) through its Metropolitan Social Housing Fund.