Montreal housing advocates have occupied a vacant apartment building in the city’s Sud-Ouest borough, saying they will stay until at least election night in an effort to push the housing crisis onto the campaign agenda.
The occupation began Monday evening in a rundown three-storey building across from the Lachine Canal. The protest is organized by the Coalition contre le logement cher, a network of 130 housing groups across Quebec.
“The goal is to convey the message as powerfully as possible,” said Francis Dolan, an organizer with a Pointe-St-Charles tenants’ rights group. “The scale of the housing crisis deserves more than the few minutes allotted during the leaders’ debates.”