Housing crisis deepens as residents struggle to find affordable housing
Nearly 1,300 Quebec families were still searching for homes on this year’s moving day, almost double the number of requests for help compared to last year and highlighting a growing housing crisis in the region.
Among those affected was Mario Lortie, who was being forced out of his Montreal apartment after 27 years.
Lortie’s new landlords plan to convert his duplex into a single home, leaving the 62-year-old former social worker with nowhere to go. Living on welfare due to health problems, Lortie had been paying just $535 a month in rent.
After an unsuccessful search for affordable housing, he turned to a community organization that helped him secure a temporary spot in a downtown hotel, paid for by Montreal’s municipal housing office.
“I’m going to have to keep looking for housing,” he told The Canadian Press. “But it stresses me out a lot because two months seems completely insufficient.”
Moving day mayhem
Montreal has long been a haven for artists, musicians, and writers, known for its relatively affordable living. However, in recent years, rents have spiked, and housing availability has dropped. Housing advocates argued this is changing the face of the city, while property owners contend that rising prices are a necessary correction after years of low rents.
As of Monday morning, nearly 1,300 Quebec households were seeking help from government services to find housing, including 159 in Montreal. This represented almost double the number of requests compared to last year.
“Maybe people elsewhere in Canada think Quebec is more affordable,” said Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Montreal housing advocacy group FRAPRU. “Quebec was maybe less affected by unaffordability until recently, but that’s no longer the case.”
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported in January that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal increased by a record 7.9% in 2023, far outstripping the average wage increase of 4.5%. The rental vacancy rate declined to 1.5% from 2% the previous year, a trend seen in many Canadian cities.
“The city that I grew up in … is not the same city that I see today,” said Cédric Dussault, a spokesperson for the Quebec housing and tenants’ rights group RCLALQ. “We’ve seen a gentrification of neighborhoods that has transformed, completely, the face of the city.”
Shifting policies, landlord concerns
Experts point to a loosening of tenant protections that historically kept prices low as a contributing factor.
Jayne Malenfant, a professor of social justice who studies housing policy at McGill University, explained that Montreal’s affordability was partly due to strong tenant organizations and protections.
However, recent changes, such as a law passed in February allowing landlords to refuse lease transfers, have sparked protests. In response, the Quebec government enacted a three-year moratorium on certain types of evictions.
Landlords argued that rent increases were necessary to keep pace with rising costs.
“The rent increases remain too low to be profitable,” said Martin Messier, president of a Quebec association representing landlords. “If we want to see investors interested, we need to make sure that the profitability is respectable.”
Montreal still “affordable”
Despite the rising costs, Montreal remains more affordable than other major Canadian cities. According to the CMHC, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal in 2023 was $1,096, compared to $1,961 in Toronto and $2,181 in Vancouver.
Quebec Premier François Legault has promised to build more housing, with the provincial and federal governments each committing $900 million over the next four years to speed up construction. However, Legault has also controversially claimed that temporary immigrants are responsible for the housing crisis, a stance that housing advocates criticize. The CMHC report noted that non-permanent residents have added pressure to the rental market in Montreal.
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Dussault believes the solution lies in building more social housing and implementing stricter rent controls.
“In Quebec, on paper, we have better protection than in other provinces, but this is just on paper,” he said.
“(Montreal) doesn’t have the reputation that it once had. We’ve spoken about how this city has become less and less affordable. We have said this for years. But now it’s not even a question of being less affordable. It’s a question of having the possibility to live in this city, period.”
Lortie is waiting for a social housing unit, but with around 35,000 households on the waitlist, there is no guarantee he will get one anytime soon. Until then, he will continue searching for an affordable place to live.
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