The Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Cote-des-Neiges borough is hoping to help tenants living in horrible conditions by creating an emergency fund.
The $250,000 fund would allow the borough to carry out the emergency repairs to buildings that put people's health and safety at risk
Though the criteria and conditions are still to be determined, the borough hopes to have it in place by July 1.
The fund would help tenants with repairs to their dwelling in the event of a delinquent landlord and would, for example, ensure they have access to heat in the winter, water, or if the lock to their apartment doesn’t work.
The borough would use the money for prompt repairs then send the bill to the landlord.
Borough Mayor Russell Copeman said this is another measure in dealing with delinquent landlords and also in dealing with the fact that many buildings in this borough are old.
“The quality of the initial construction is debatable, and there’s been deferred maintenance that hasn’t been done on a lot of those buildings, so the buildings continue to deteriorate,” said Copeman
The $250,000 would come from a borough surplus and would be a rolling fund, meaning as the borough recoups the money, it would be returned into the fund.
Copeman also said the borough could increase the fund if need be.
The borough council still has to approve the plan. If it does, it would be the first borough to create such a fund.
