The Réseau québécois des OSBL d’habitation and the opposition parties in Quebec have united to request the province 5,000 additional housing units per year for five years.
The purpose of this request is much larger than the original plan of the Government of Quebec, which provided for the construction of 500 new dwellings per year over five years.
It also exceeded the housing construction target revised by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) in February, to nearly 1,500 units by the end of 2022.
These efforts are clearly not enough in the face of a vacancy rate of less than 1% in some regions, André Castonguay, the president of the Quebec Network of Housing OSBLs (RQOH), was outraged.
Uncovered rents
Rent increases hit an all -time high for 2021 of up to 8.8% [d’augmentation] in Gatineau, 8.7% in Sherbrooke and 7.1% in Saguenaydetailed André Castonguay.
And with mass evictions, we end up with households that exceed their housing needs or agree to exceed their monthly budget limit, explains Cédric Dussault, spokesman for the Regroupement des Comités Logement et Associations des Tenants du Québec (RCLALQ).
” If we spend a third of our income on our rent, we are at the bottom of the poverty line. We are currently talking about [locataires] passing by [allouent] more than 50% of their income to pay rent. “
The crisis that has continued in recent years no longer affects large city centers, but also affects outer cities major centers and regions. Result: People don’t know where to goHe added.
The opposition wants more
The three parties welcomed the recognition of this crisis by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Andrée Laforest, but they insisted on taking into account the need to put more measures in place.
Crisis [du logement] finally identified by CAQ. When we identify a crisis, then we put the methods and solutions and the crisis cell in place to move forwardand Liberal MP Marie-Claude Nichols.
The Quebec network of NPO is able to respond to the crisis if given the meansadded the supportive deputy, Andrés Fontecilla.
For him, Parti Québécois MNA Méganne Perry Mélançon asked the Minister to appear vision at listening.
Other solutions?
To combat this housing crisis, we must not only rely on the construction of social housing, but we must also deal with rising rents, argues Cédric Dussault.
Control over increases will be done first of all by setting up an annual index of rent increases, so that landlords are obliged to raise rents to a level not higher than this indexhe explains.
The provincial rent register should also be mandatory as most of the increases are made when moving from one tenant to another.
Cédric Dussault regrets that Régie du logement is currently without power over rent increases. All we have is an increase index published each year by the Housing Tribunal.
Source: Radio-Canada
