The housing crisis is hitting Quebec hard and the population is paying the price. The private real estate industry does not meet the needs of people with low or middle incomes. This is obviously not its primary mission. In addition, housing development conditions have become particularly difficult with, in particular, rising interest rates and construction costs.
At the Alliance of Affordable Housing Corporations in Greater Montreal (ACHAT), a group of non-profit homeowners, we believe it is time to increase national and regional capacities for the production and management of housing with a social mission.
The housing crisis is not inevitable; tackling it vigorously would be a decisive economic and social development action.
It is possible to meet the challenge of residential affordability by ensuring that the industry produces, regardless of the economic context, a sufficient supply of social and affordable housing that is free from speculation.
For PURCHASING, we propose that this offer increase, in a few years, from 5% to 20% of the residential rental market. To achieve this ambitious but realistic target, two actions will be used: new construction and the conversion of existing housing into affordable housing. Several social and affordable housing NPOs, some of which are members of the ACHAT, have the means and the ability to contribute.
For a national industrial policy of social and affordable housing
To do this, we suggest developing a real industrial policy inspired by the approaches used by “superclusters”, as they are called in Ottawa, or “national strategies”, as they are called in Quebec. All the players concerned must work together, namely the three levels of government, the associations of builders, private developers and their financiers, without forgetting the architects and the representatives of employees in the sector.
It is necessary to align public policies – regulatory tools, tax measures – that will promote the emergence and consolidation of non-profit real estate companies capable of meeting the population’s needs in terms of social and affordable housing in the long term. This industrial policy would include the creation of adequate and complementary financing tools that would make it possible to mobilize housing operators with a social mission authorized to develop and manage a large volume of non-speculative housing in all regions of Quebec. In addition, it would create quality jobs throughout the territory.
For several decades, social economy real estate enterprises, such as those that are members of ACHAT, have proven themselves.
Today, they continue to grow despite the difficult economic context thanks to a variety of strategies and financial partnerships. Their business model, based on holding real estate assets over the long term, makes it possible to gradually build quality residential affordability for the benefit of local communities. These companies with a social mission are resilient in times of economic crisis, cannot be sold to foreign or speculative interests and their presence contributes greatly to maintaining a healthy and balanced real estate market (no renovation, loss of housing for accommodation temporary Airbnb type or excessive rent increase). Housing NPOs have reached a size and a level of maturity that make them real tools for economic, social, urban, sustainable development on a human scale. The housing crisis is avoidable; it is high time to take action!
* Co-signatories, for the PURCHASE: Catherine Boucher, general manager of Habitations communautaire Loggia; François Claveau, general manager of the Corporation Mainbourg; François Giguère, Managing Director of SOLIDES; Nathalie Meilleur, Managing Director of Hapopex; Louis-Philippe Myre, Managing Director of Interloge; Jean-Pierre Racette, Managing Director of SHAPEM; Élise Tanguay, director of public affairs at UTILE; François Tremblay, General Manager of Espace La Traversée