Housing advocates calling on government to double the number of social housing units in Quebec

A man wears a cardboard house on his head during a demonstration calling for more affordable and social housing in Montreal, Saturday, May 8, 2021. (Graham Hughes, The Canadian Press)

The Montreal-based housing advocate - FRAPRU (Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain) - is calling on the Quebec government to double the number of social housing units in the province within 15 years.

The organization, which brings together housing committees and citizens' associations, made the request on Sunday, following a three-day congress in Sherbrooke.

"In the past, we were already willing to say, we need to increase the share (of social housing) to meet the needs of low- and modest-income tenant households, many of whom were already spending too much of their income on housing. But there's an added urgency that's been building up over the last few years, with the shortage of rental housing and rising unaffordability. Rents are rising fast everywhere,” FRAPRU spokesperson Véronique Laflamme said in an interview.

FRAPRU points out that social housing currently accounts for 10.5 per cent of active housing in Quebec. The organization would like to see this proportion rise to at least 20 per cent. To achieve this, FRAPRU is asking the government to set a target of acquiring or building 10,000 social housing units each year, in the form of non-profit organizations (NPOs), housing cooperatives and public social housing (such as HLMs), over a 15-year period.

"To achieve this, we need programs that are adapted both to new construction and to getting still-affordable rental properties off the market. We're getting a perspective with targets, and the means to get there,” said Laflamme, indicating that this is the new direction FRAPRU will be working on.

The FRAPRU spokesperson pointed out that this does not mean that new social housing should be stopped after 15 years, but rather that this demand represents "a minimum".

"At all levels, cities, the Quebec government and the federal government are telling us that we need to build to get out of the crisis," said Laflamme. "But the observation we're making, and which is being made just about everywhere, is that if we build anything at all, we won't get out of the crisis. If the solution is simply to build new private housing, we're going to increase the problem of unaffordability.

"We need to ensure that there is a minimum level of non-profit housing construction, on which no one is making a profit, to meet the needs of low- and modest-income households, who are the hardest hit by this crisis and who are often already one step away from homelessness."

Vacancy rates were low in several cities in 2023, according to the annual report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

In Greater Montreal, the vacancy rate dropped from 2 to 1.5 per cent in 2023. In Quebec City, the vacancy rate dropped to 0.9 per cent, its lowest level in 15 years, according to CMHC.

However, the vacancy rate in the Quebec part of the Ottawa-Gatineau census metropolitan area remained stable in 2023, at 1.1 per cent.

A difficult July 1

FRAPRU expects July 1 to be difficult again this year, particularly in view of low vacancy rates and rent increases, said Laflamme.

"We must not forget that, despite the fact that the search for housing is very difficult, there are all these households living in situations of poor housing, in housing that is already too expensive, in housing in poor condition, in housing that is too small for their family, who have no alternative and who remain in their housing for fear of ending up on the street," she added, saying that she fears these situations will be normalized.

Laflamme also noted that FRAPRU is seeing an increase in demand for rehousing services in many cases.

"There are no longer many regions that are spared this phenomenon of tenant households at risk of homelessness as July 1 approaches," said Laflamme.

She pointed out that, outside the major centres, cities such as Trois-Rivières, Granby, Sherbrooke and Rimouski are also affected by the housing crisis.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 9, 2024.