A tenant group is speaking out about the decrepit state of social housing in Quebec, which continues to deteriorate as the cost of repairs rises.
According to the Social Housing Tenants Federation, 75 per cent of Montreal’s social housing units are in disrepair and are at risk of being condemned.
Representatives of the group spoke to reporters in front of a six-unit building in Ville Marie that has been barricaded since 2019 because of mould.
They said the repair bill for the low-rent building would have been $271,000 in 2020 but would cost $438,000 today because of inflation and rising construction costs.
"The six families are now in other social housing here in the area, but six other families are waiting on the list," said Patricia Viannay, one of the representatives.
A total of 15,000 families are currently living in unsanitary conditions, advocates say.
Among them is Carol Guilbault, who lives in a LaSalle social housing complex.
Guilbault says her building and the one next door are considered code E, which is the worst grade possible for social housing properties and indicates the building requires major repairs.
"When you have problems like in this one [mould], young people get sick, old people die because it gets to their lungs, so what is the human being valued? That's my question to Legault," said Guilbault.
The number of units earning a D or E grade has gone from 18,644 in 2020 to 25,974 in 2022.
The tenant group is accusing the province of breaking its promises and is calling on François Legault's government to put up the $2.2 billion it had pledged for social housing repairs.
The province's housing agency, the Société d'habitation du Québec, estimated in 2016 that more than 700 of its low-rent units were in a poor or very poor state, representing nearly 30 per cent of its social housing stock.
With files from The Canadian Press
