In early July, nearly 1,800 tenant households were still trying to find a place to live in Quebec – that figure remains about the same just over one month since Moving day.
Advocates say this situation has persisted over the years because access to housing has become less affordable.
“There’s definitely been an increase in the level of distress among tenants that we’re seeing on the ground,” said Shannon Franssen, interim coordinator at Le Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ). “And again, that’s something that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of years,”
“We know that there is much more people that are on the couch with a friend, at the family place,” said Some will do camping, sleep in their cars. That’s a really not great situation to be in,” said Catherine Lussier, coordinator at FRAPRU.
Many people that are in need of housing are families with children.
“That’s even more a stressful situation for them, knowing that we already in August, school is starting back really soon for them and they’re still having a permanent situation,” said Lussier. “It’s a really difficult moment and it’s really taking a toll.”
Quebec Housing Society confirmed with CityNews that 362 households are still in temporary housing in the province. Of these – 153 are staying in hotels and 209 are with relatives.
“What we’ve heard from people on the ground is that it’s sort of like you might find a place for one person, but two more people will show up,” said Franssen. “And so it’s sort of a two steps forward, one step back kind of situation throughout the summer,”
Current data shows 1,727 households are still actively supported by housing assistance services – offered to them to find new housing that better suits their needs or their ability to pay their rent.
“One of the solutions is definitely to build more social housing,” said Lussier. “That is co-op, non-profit, even low-income housing that needs to be rebuilt. We need to keep up the pace and build new ones.”
FRAPRU reiterated that they want to address the issue of affordability by demanding the CAQ government to build 150,000 social housing units over the next 15 years.
If Montrealers need assistance in their housing search, they can contact the housing search assistance services at habitation.gouv.qc.ca
Franssen says one of the big problems seen is landlords putting their rents up substantially and illegally in between tenants – noting the need for a provincial rent registry.
“It’s so difficult, especially in municipalities and in regions where the vacancy rate is very low, and the average rent is very high,” said Franssen. “It’s so difficult for people to find something that it’s like; they’re experiencing a difficulty finding housing that they haven’t experienced in the past. 10 years ago, it wasn’t like this, 15 years ago, it wasn’t like this.”