Nearly 500 Quebec households still looking for new place to rent after Moving Day: housing group

The day after July 1, 494 households across Quebec had still not signed a lease, even though they are being followed by a service offering assistance, says FRAPRU, a group that campaigns for social housing and tenants' rights.

"There are 494 households, but we don't know how many people are actually affected, since they may be families, couples or single people," said Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), at a press conference in Montreal on Tuesday.

She notes that these are not households who are homeless outright, but who are waiting to find housing and sign a lease. They may be camping, staying temporarily with friends or family, or benefiting from temporary accommodation provided by a municipality.

More specifically, 115 of these households are located in Montreal, where the situation is "untenable," Laflamme added.

The situation is the same in Gatineau, she notes. In the Eastern Townships, 82 households are in the same situation, 54 in Montérégie, 58 in Centre-du-Québec and 45 in Bas-Saint-Laurent.

This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on July 4, 2023.

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