Following Quebec’s traditional moving day on Wednesday, 71 households in Montreal are temporarily staying in hotel rooms provided by the city’s housing authority.
That’s twice as many households as last year, the city said Thursday. Another 219 households at risk of losing their home are being aided by the city.
“Anyone that asked for help has been taken care of,” Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada told reporters at city hall.
While the city is still collecting data on the situation, the mayor said there has been a notable increase this year in the number of people who lost their home because of an eviction.
Martinez Ferrada said the increase is a mix of people facing eviction because they could no longer afford their rent and bad-faith landlords forcing evictions, or so-called renovictions.
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“It’s clear there is still a lot of work to be done on the issue of tenants’ rights to remain in their homes,” she said.
The mayor said she is also aware of complaints from residents about large garbage piles following moving day. She noted the city is giving itself a week to clean up the streets.
Martinez Ferrada said the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough already has a team dedicated to the task and the downtown Ville-Marie borough has increased the number of blue-collar workers addressing the issue.
She called on people to use the city’s Ecocentres instead of leaving their belongings and trash by the curb when moving, describing the matter as a shared responsibility.
Asked if she would consider increasing fines for those who aren’t respecting garbage bylaws, Martinez Ferrada said she isn’t quite there yet.
“Is it something we’ll need to consider and act on by next year? It’s a question worth asking,” she said. “Obviously, people who aren’t moving shouldn’t need to deal with consequences from those who are.”