Moving Day is coming up for more than 115,000 Montrealers on July 1, when a critical mass of Quebec leases expire, and it’s become a day housing advocates dread.
“ This is a really tough day for the city. It’s funny, it used to be a day of transition. A day of newness. A day of hope. A day of change,” said James Hughes, president and CEO at Old Brewery Mission.
“ (July 1) is a symbol of so much of the precariousness and stress that people face as tenants,” added Amy Darwish, co-ordinator with Comité d’Action de Parc-Extension.
With July 1 around the corner, Hughes and Darwish joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to sound the alarm on what’s sure to be a difficult moving season for the more than 3,000 Montrealers Hughes estimates could be without a place to live.
“ We’ve never seen it change like we have over the last five to 10 years,” Hughes said. “ Who can go in a métro station right now and not see homeless people? It wasn’t like that before.”
Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette
Darwish said while it’s good many emergency measures are in place to help people find homes before July 1, too many people are losing their homes in the first place.
”What we’re seeing is that rents have been going through the roof,” she said. “The Quebec government knew that this was going to be a consequence of the changes that they made to the rent increase system that they put in place, and we’re seeing the consequences.
“ Here in Park Extension, for example, fully 50 per cent of the cases that we saw over the last year were people who were dealing with abusive rent hikes.
As thousands of Montrealers scramble to find housing, 25,000 apartments sit empty, according to a Radio-Canada analysis of Hydro-Québec electricity consumption data.
”So the vacancy rates are quite large for the more expensive tiers of housing. For example, apartments that are $1,500-1,800 a month are often at four or five per cent,” Darwish said. “But if you look at the tier of housing that’s under $1,000, it drops to below one per cent.”
Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette
The solution, according to both, is more social housing. Because while July 1 is where housing issues become front and centre, it’s an issue the city is facing throughout the year.
“ These problems are year-round as well,” Darwish said.
“ It’s no longer just on July 1 that people are becoming homeless.”