With average Montreal rent climbing, proposal would set aside 100 emergency units before July 1

Montreal's annual game of musical chairs -- otherwise known as the city-wide Moving Day on July 1 -- has gotten much higher-stakes in recent years, but a new proposal at City Hall is meant to ease the crunch.

In recent years, with a very tight housing market, there are families left without housing each Moving Day, and sometime they end up needing their "emergency" housing for a much longer term -- months after July 1.

"At the moment we have 16 households that are staying in hotels, according to the OMHM," said Benoit Langevin of opposition party Ensemble Montreal, referring to the municipal housing office.

A new motion by the party would allow the city to find, lease and prepare a stock of 100 dwellings that are ready to go on July 1 and can be used to house families. This would be done with a budget of $1 million.

Currently, the OMHM has a budget of over $3.5 million to book hotel rooms as a last resort for families stuck without a lease in July.

"We believe that we need to start working now if we want the city to be ready," said Langevin.

Rents in the city continue to rise to record highs. A new report for the renting platform rentals.ca shows the average price of a Montreal two-bedroom apartment went up 5.9 per cent in 2021. Now it's almost $2,000 a month.

The city says it's open to the proposal. A spokesperson said the administration is carefully studying the opposition's motion and will be able to discuss it with them before the next council meeting on Monday.

The system outlined in the motion relies on the help of community groups, saying that the OMHM would ask them to be on the lookout for available homes to snap up as one of the 100 available units.

That idea isn't a far cry from what's already happening, though, say community groups -- especially for vulnerable people, they're already very involved in helping look for housing and secure leases.

Sam Watts of the Welcome Hall Mission, for example, says his shelter has signed 11 leases just in the last week for clients who need suitable housing but also need help to get settled.

"[It's] far better to be proactive than to always be in emergency mode," said Watts. "So this is just one idea of, I think, many that could be out there for us to explore."

But a coalition made up of housing committees and tenants' associations is wary of the burden falling on such groups, saying many don't have the resources to search for homes in this way.

The coalition, RCLALQ, says more of the responsibility should fall on the province, which controls most housing law in Quebec, including most of the measures that would help keep rent prices more stable.

"We feel we're doing a lot right now, but we don't address the actual problem, which is the rent increase that is making the market unaffordable to Quebecers," said Marion Duval of RCLALQ.

This week, Montreal's administration moved to put in place one of the measures it promised during the fall election, saying it was one of the only things within the city's powers to do to protect tenants: create a landlords' registry where landlords must report how much they're charging, the condition of their buildings and more.