Over 100 families without long-term housing on Moving Day in Montreal

At least 107 families were unable to find a home before July 1 Moving day in Montreal – a number Mayor Valerie Plante called “unacceptable.”

Plante said recently the city would work with anyone out of a home to find new lodging. On Saturday, she renewed a request to the province to collaborate more closely with the city.

“I feel like the city is doing a lot of things, the (provincial) government is doing some things,” she said during a Saturday press conference. “But how about we put all of our efforts together?”

“When I put a bylaw against renovation … or to buy apartments, I do it from my budget,” she said. “But then, imagine if I would work with the government of Quebec, if the government of Quebec would say ‘it’s a priority, we want to work on it,’ we could duplicate, we could multiply those actions.”

“All citizens in Quebec are saying the housing crisis is real and we want to be heard,” she added.

On the tenant side, Darlene Lamontagne fears she could soon face homelessness herself.

She’s been living in her Pointe-Saint-Charles apartment since she was 17 years old. These days, at 64, she deals with mobility issues. She uses a cane, and lives on a fixed disability income of $1,500 per month. 

“I've been living like this for 10 years without complaints. I hardly ever ask them for anything. I asked them for a banister once and they told me it was going to cost me a bunch of money, so I never got it,” she told CTV.

Now, after 47 years in her apartment, she says she’s received an eviction notice. She’s paying less than $500 per month on rent, and said she suspects the eviction notice might be motivated by a desire to renovate and raise the rent from her landlord.

"I was going to take them to court, but then I don't know what happened. They came the morning before the day of court and they offered me money, and, I don't know, I signed a paper,” she said.

“I was stupid, I should have waited. I should have went to court. But, then you don't want to stay somewhere you're not wanted," she added.

CTV reached the landlord by telephone Saturday. He said profit had nothing to do with the eviction notice, rather that he's been receiving complaints about her from other tenants for years.

FILE: Discarded belongings are shown on a street on moving day in Montreal, Friday, July 1, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Still, tenants’ rights advocate Catherine Lussier says she could have stayed.

“Unfortunately, a lot of tenants, when it's cases of repairs they don't feel like they have a choice,” said Lussier, a community organizer with housing group FRAPRU.

“A lot of them will decide to sign and cancel their lease,” she said.

The City of Montreal has already provided temporary housing for dozens of families without a place to live. As for a more permanent solution, Lamontagne says she’s still looking.

"It's terrible out there. I went to three interview to find a place and then they were way too expensive,” she said. “There's no way, you have to give your whole disability (pay) and live on nothing."