Who is responsible for funding social housing? In the context of the announced end of the AccèsLogis program and the recent involvement of investment funds in the financing of social housing in Quebec, the community sector fears a “drift” towards greater involvement of the private sector in the realization of this type of housing instead of the State.
“It’s clear to us that the financing of social housing is up to the higher orders of government because they are the ones who have sufficient wealth,” says the director general of Bâtir son quartier, Edith Cyr. “But in the current context of the housing crisis, it’s okay for the whole of society to mobilize to allow everyone to find housing. »
Last February, the confirmation by the Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, of the end of the AccèsLogis program had the effect of a bombshell in the community. Since 1997, this program has helped non-profit organizations fund social and community housing projects in the province. However, it presented a certain administrative heaviness, in the opinion of Minister Duranceau. Quebec has thus created the Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ), which will officially replace AccèsLogis when its funds have run out.
“Social housing is not dead,” says France-Élaine Duranceau, in an interview with Duty. This will continue to be financed by the State, with the objective of having housing where the less well-off tenants can pay 25% of their income for housing. The main distinction of the new affordable housing program of the Legault government, compared to AccèsLogis, is that tight deadlines are now required to accelerate construction, argues the minister.
“Those who insist on saying that AccèsLogis was the best thing, it’s because they don’t want to be agile, they don’t want to evolve. We have to adapt,” the minister said to community groups who criticize the PHAQ. “In life, those who survive are those who adapt and those who deliver. »
More privacy
The PHAQ, while continuing to fund community groups wishing to carry out social housing projects, gives greater importance to the private sector, which will receive a share of funding from Québec for the construction of this type of housing. At the same time, the Government of Quebec granted $350 million in public funds divided equally between the Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Desjardins to finance the creation of 2,000 social and affordable housing units by the end of 2025, an objective that these two financial players are in the process of exceeding.
“Everyone agrees that it took too long to do social housing, so we asked Desjardins and the Solidarity Fund for help. [FTQ]. They put in the money, and we have the arms to analyze the projects” by involving the teams of these investment funds, explains Minister Duranceau. “It’s additional help to analyze the projects, complete the financial arrangements and deliver the projects. »
However, the growing involvement of the private sector in the financing of social housing worries some people. As part of a forum held on May 3 by the Fédération des OSBL d’habitation de Montréal (FOHM), representatives of organizations raised fears that social housing financed by investment funds could be victimized in the long term. pressures in the real estate market.
“When you offer subsidies to private developers to make affordable housing, you create affordable transactions, but you don’t create housing that will be affordable in the long term,” says the Duty researcher Marie-Sophie Banville, from the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS). “We are really just shoveling the problem forward. »
Everyone agrees that it took too long to do social housing, so we asked Desjardins and the Solidarity Fund for help. [FTQ]. They put in the money, and we have the arms to analyze the projects.
In response, the regional coordination advisor at the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Réjean Bellemare, recalled during the FOHM forum that many social housing projects are struggling to see the light of day due to a lack of funds from the government. By financing such initiatives, the investment fund thus compensates for the effects of a “disengagement of the State in social housing”, said Mr. Bellemare.
However, this funding allocated by the private sector “cannot replace real comprehensive social housing programs”, insists , former spokesperson for the Popular Action Front in urban redevelopment from 1979 to 2016 and author of several books. Right now, community groups have to do a lot of tinkering” to balance the budget for their social housing projects, especially since the announced end of the AccèsLogis program.
Real estate speculation
The Fonds de solidarité FTQ currently devotes 15% of its real estate investments to social and affordable housing projects. The rest, 85% of its investments, goes instead to private housing projects. A situation that has contributed in recent years to the emergence of large housing towers with particularly high rents, to facilitate the achievement of the profitability objectives of this investment fund.
“The 85% they invest in private housing, with big players like Devimco, is their arsonist action in the Montreal real estate market. And their 15% investment in social housing is their firefighting action, ”said Mme Banville. The housing crisis continues to grow, despite the share of investment in social housing, she says.
Ultimately, investment funds, by contributing to real estate speculation, risk making social housing projects more and more “expensive and less and less feasible” although they are partly financed by these same private actors, warns for its part Louis Gaudreau, professor at the School of Social Work at UQAM and specialist in housing. He has worked on several analyzes concerning the impact of investment funds on real estate speculation, in Quebec as elsewhere in the private sector. .
Moreover, in the context of rising construction costs, interest rates and property values, “building social housing is necessarily loss-making,” recalls Louis Gaudreau. In fact, in this context, “the only actor who has the means to do so under these conditions is the State”.