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On Quebec's traditional moving day, hundreds of renters are still
looking for a home
(HTM) Source
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Open this photo in gallery:
People carry a couch across a street on moving day in Montreal on July
1.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
It's moving day in Quebec, and Mario Lortie is leaving his apartment
of 27 years.
It's not by choice. His new landlords, who recently bought the
Montreal duplex where he lives, want to convert the building into a
single home, so Lortie got the boot.
The problem is he has nowhere to go. The 62-year-old former social
worker lives on welfare due to health problems, and was paying just
$535 a month in rent. After a fruitless search for another apartment
he could afford, Lortie turned to a community organization that helped
him get a temporary spot in a downtown hotel, paid for by Montreal's
municipal housing office.
So Lortie packed his things into storage and got ready to leave. He
can stay at the hotel for two months, but isn't sure what comes next.
"I'm going to have to keep looking for housing," he said. "But it
stresses me out a lot, because two months seems completely
insufficient."
Open this photo in gallery:
Mario Lortie in his apartment in Montreal on June 28.Graham Hughes/The
Canadian Press
Montreal has long been known as a haven for artists, musicians and
writers - a cosmopolitan city where it was possible to earn little and
still live well. But rents have spiked and housing availability has
dropped in recent years. Housing advocates say it's changing the face
of the city, while property owners say rising prices are part of a
necessary correction in an area where rents have stayed too low for
too long.
But this July 1, the day when most Quebec leases expire, Lortie is
just trying to put one foot in front of the other. He suffers from
depression, and he's been having a hard time sleeping through the
night. He said he struggled to get all his belongings packed up in
time.
"I couldn't focus on it," he said. "I was completely discouraged."
Lortie's story is not unique. As of Monday morning, there were nearly
1,300 Quebec households seeking help from government services to find
housing, including 159 in Montreal. The number of requests for help
finding housing has almost doubled in a year.
"Maybe people elsewhere in Canada think Quebec is more affordable,"
said Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Montreal-based housing
advocacy group FRAPRU. "Quebec was maybe less affected by
unaffordability until recently, but that's no longer the case."
In January, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported the
average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal had increased by
a record 7.9 per cent in 2023. The hike far outstripped the average
wage increase of 4.5 per cent.
Open this photo in gallery:
A woman enters a building next to a sign advertising an apartment for
rent on moving day in Montreal, on July 1.Graham Hughes/The Canadian
Press
At the same time, the rental vacancy rate had declined to 1.5 per cent
from two per cent a year earlier - a trend seen in many Canadian
cities.
Housing advocates are sounding the alarm. According to the Quebec
housing and tenants' rights group RCLALQ, the average rent for
available units in Montreal has increased 27 per cent in the last four
years. Other cities in the province have seen steeper hikes.
"The city that I grew up in … is not the same city that I see today,"
said Cédric Dussault, a spokesperson for the group. "We've seen a
gentrification of neighbourhoods that has transformed completely the
face of the city."
Some experts say Quebec is loosening the rules that for years helped
keep prices low. "Part of the reason why Montreal was historically
more affordable wasn't by accident. It was in part because of really
strong tenant organizations, protections for tenants and housing
rights being enacted," said Jayne Malenfant, a professor of social
justice who studies housing policy at McGill University.
But that's now changing, Malenfant said. In particular, they pointed
to a recent law that gives landlords the right to refuse lease
transfers. The bill, passed in February, sparked protests by those who
argued that transferring a lease from one tenant to another prevented
landlords from hiking rent between tenants.
Following the outcry, the Quebec government passed a second law last
month that puts a three-year moratorium on certain types of evictions.
Meanwhile, landlords say they're also facing cost increases, and they
argue rents in Quebec need to keep pace. "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."
Messier said the rent increases on available units don't tell the
whole story, noting there are many cheaper rental units that tenants
rarely vacate.
In fact, despite the upward trend, Montreal remains considerably more
affordable than the other biggest cities in Canada. According to the
CMHC, the average rent in 2023 for a two-bedroom apartment in Montreal
was $1,096, compared to $1,961 in Toronto and $2,181 in Vancouver.
Open this photo in gallery:
People carry appliances from a truck on moving day.Graham Hughes/The
Canadian Press
Quebec Premier François Legault has promised to build more housing.
Last fall, the provincial and federal governments each promised to
spend $900 million over the next four years to speed up construction
in the province.
Lately, however, Legault has repeatedly claimed that temporary
immigrants are responsible for the province's housing crisis. Housing
advocates say the premier is using immigrants as a scapegoat, though
the CMHC report does say that non-permanent residents have contributed
to the rental pressure in Montreal.
Dussault believes the solution is to build more social housing and
pass stricter rent controls.
"In Quebec, on paper, we have better protection than in other
provinces, but this is just on paper," he said.
Lortie is currently waiting for a social housing unit, but with around
35,000 households on the wait-list, there's no guarantee he'll get one
any time soon. Until then, he'll keep looking for something that's
increasingly difficult to find.
"(Montreal) doesn't have the reputation that it once had," Dussault
said. "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."
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