Around 700 affordable apartments in eastern Montreal to get renovated

Work is underway in Montreal’s Hochelaga neighbourhood to preserve an affordable housing community in place since the 1950s.

Gérer son quartier, which has run the 111 buildings that make up Habitations Le Domaine since 2017, wants to bring the building up to code, make important repairs and upgrade fire alarms, among other renovations.

Marika Leclerc, head of the non-profit organization, said it’s crucial to maintain the city’s existing affordable housing stock as a non-profit and prevent renovictions — when a tenant is kicked out for renovations and the rent goes up. She said there are tenants who have lived in the building since 1958 who can’t imagine having to find a new home.

“At a certain age, the stress of living through that is very, very rough,” she said.

Housing advocates have long been calling on all three levels of government to build more affordable housing. But at a news conference Friday, the need to invest in maintenance and not let units deteriorate was emphasized.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said that on top of the housing crisis, Montreal is dealing with a vulnerability crisis.

“We have to make sure people won’t end up being evicted or be stuck in units that are unsanitary because it’s all they can afford or they end up on the street,” she said.

Leclerc stressed that Montreal is full of old buildings that need to be taken care of before it’s too late, and the tenants who live there tend to have lower rents than the market median. For example, some Habitations Le Domaine tenants still pay under $800 for their two-bedroom apartments.

“I think it's actually pretty sad that we forgot that there's so many apartments in Montreal that need to be taken care of,” she said. “If we don't take care of them, now, the tenants eventually will have to leave, because the work that will have to be done will be even greater.”

Family housing needed

The Habitations Le Domaine has very few vacancies because the need for affordable family-sized units is so high, said Leclerc. Of the 726 apartments, most have two or three bedrooms and just over 130 are eligible for social housing subsidies.

Leclerc said it can be harder for families to find housing in the city because few new developments include family-sized apartments, and landlords sometimes discriminate against tenants with children due to noise concerns.

She added that Gérer son quartier wants to add more four and five-bedroom homes to its stock.

“Families are being left out and they have to leave Montreal. It is important for everybody to live close by — you have schools next door and the library and parks,” she said.

Federal money

Leclerc said trying to secure funding for the project took years. The federal government gave the non-profit nearly $10 million from the Affordable Housing Fund, while another $150,000 came from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's Seed Funding Program.

The City of Montreal also provided funding through its renovation programs, amounting to some $1.4 million.

Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the minister of tourism and minister responsible for the economic development agency of Canada for Quebec, said she was pleased to show that revitalizing her riding is a priority.

She said the federal government decided to give the non-profit the funding rather than loaning it out, so as to not push the cost of renovations onto tenants. She added that there is no one solution to solve the housing crisis.

“Yes, we need to build a lot quickly and well … we also have to defend the right to housing. We have to work with the private sector to improve the quantity of housing on the market, and we especially have to preserve the affordability of our current housing stock,” Ferrada told journalists.

Encampment tent caught fire

With the first snowfall of the year and the dismantling of one of Montreal’s most well-known encampments near the highway, homelessness has been front-of-mind this week.

“It’s cold and snowing, and there are people sleeping in tents. As a society, we can’t accept this and we must all do more,” said Plante, adding that tackling the issue case-by-case is not working anymore.

She is calling on Quebec to come up with a national strategy to end homelessness. Plante said Premier François Legault refused to fund warming tents in Montreal. The two are meant to meet again Tuesday, and Plante said she “expects Quebec to say ‘we see what Montreal is doing, you put some sites forward and you’re ready to do more, we will finance you.’”

A tent at the Notre-Dame encampment caught fire earlier this week as people tried to stay warm.

“The urgency is real and this can’t take weeks and weeks and months before there are resources on the table,” said Plante. “We don’t want people to die.”