Community groups, opposition politicians call on Quebec to repair 'deteriorating' social housing

A man climbs onto the balcony of a barricaded apartment building in downtown Montreal's Ville-Marie borough. One nail at a time, he hammersa poster that reads "please renovate our low-income housing" onto the wood of a boarded-up window.

The building used to house six low-income families, Robert Pilon, the man with the hammer, explains.

On a tour of the building, Pilon, a co-ordinator at the Fdration des locataires d'habitations loyer modique du Qubec (FLHLMQ), points out the water-damaged floors and walls.

The kitchen cupboards are wide open. Water drips down into a bucket. The roof wasn't changed for 15 years and the water damage resulted in dangerous mould in the walls, he said. The families had to move out in 2019.

On Monday in front of the barricaded building groups representing tenants of government low-cost housing or HLMs (Habitation loyer modr) and opposition politicians called on the Legault government to keep its promises and repair what they call Quebec's "rapidly deteriorating" stock of low-income housing units.

The groups representing the tenants are asking the Quebec government to allocate $400 million to renovate social housing units over the next five years.

They sayhalf ofthe funds should be dedicated to Montreal, where according to the province's housing agency, the Socit d'habitation du Qubec (SHQ) 75 per cent of social housing units are in poor or very poor condition, up from 66 percent the previous year.

Provincewide, the SHQs own numbers (from a March 31, 2022 report) show 40.2 per cent of the province's 64,663 low-cost housing units required major work, a jump from 28.9 per cent in 2020.

"We are here today because we really need to sound the alarm," said Patricia Viannay, community organizer with the FLHLMQ.

"How did we get here? It's a chronic under-investment in the maintenance of these buildings."

The activists say the Quebec government has failedto put the $2.2 billion it acquired from the federal government for social housing to real use, spending only $48.9 million of $275 million earmarked for social housing repairs by 2028.

"It's really a shame," said Viannay.

And the cost of repairs is getting more expensive.

Renovations to the Ville-Marie building would have cost $271,000 in 2020, but now the price has nearly doubled to $438,000, the housing groups said.

The FLHLMQsays the SHQ has reduced its investments in renovations in recent years from an average of $352 million between 2015 and 2019 to $281 million between 2019 and 2022.

"It is more important to renovate [and] save what exists than to build new buildings," said Richard Gagn, president of the Comit consultatif des rsidents (CCR).

Opposition politicians take aim at CAQ

Virginie Dufour, the Liberal MNA for Mille-les and opposition critic for municipal affairs and housing, says she is concerned by the growing number of boarded-uplow-income buildings.

"The poorest people of the population cannot afford what is called 'affordable housing.' What we are seeing today is that there is a lack of investment in existing social housing, and we're seeing that it's getting worse and worse."

Former Parti Qubcois MNA Mganne Perry Mlancon criticized Franois Legault's CAQ government.

"I think the inaction of the Legault government has a huge cost on people," she said. "They only take care of people who have money and want to build more property."

Andrs Fontecilla, Qubec Solidaire MNA for Laurier-Dorion and the party's housing critic, also blames Legault.

"We are living in a housing crisis, everyone recognizes except the CAQ," Fontecilla said. He said the government's inaction will mean more dilapidated homes and shutteredbuildings going forward.

The office of France-laine Duranceau, minister responsible for housing, responded in a statement that said the full $2.2 billion that is part of the federal-provincial agreement will be spent on social housing by 2028.

It also said 70 per cent of housing units are in good condition and that with the help of the federal investments, Quebec has spent $1.4 billion in building repairs and renovations.