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Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada is defending the city\u2019s decision to abandon a long-planned modular housing project for unhoused people in Outremont.<\/p>\n
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada is defending the city\u2019s decision to abandon a long-planned modular housing project for unhoused people in Outremont.<\/p>\n
Speaking at city hall Thursday, Martinez Ferrada said the costs attached to the project have grown too high to justify \u2014 despite the city already purchasing the units under the previous administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not the right project for that site,\u201d Martinez Ferrada told reporters. \u201cWe need to have the right project, on the right site, with a financial structure that works.\u201d<\/p>\n
The previous Projet Montr\u00e9al administration had purchased modular housing units for $3.2 million in early 2025. The plan was to open three separate sites across the city that could each house 30 people experiencing homelessness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first opened last September at the former Hippodrome site in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges\u2014Notre-Dame-de-Gr\u00e2ce<\/a>, and the second opened in Ahuntsic-Cartierville in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Outremont project was scheduled to open this year, but the Journal de Montr\u00e9al reported this week the city has decided not to move ahead with it.<\/p>\n Martinez Ferrada said Thursday the previous administration failed to account for the cost of decontaminating the site, which drove the price beyond what\u2019s acceptable. <\/p>\n \u201cModular housing should cost less than $100,000 per door. The project we had in our hands, because we need to decontaminate the site\u00a0\u2026 would cost more than $300,000 per door,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cThat\u2019s not modular housing anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n The trailer-like units used for the projects are modular homes that once sheltered Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec employees working on the Romaine dam. It\u2019s unclear what the city now intends to do with those that were bought for the Outremont site.<\/p>\n Martinez Ferrada raised the possibility\u00a0of using them in a different capacity, noting a homeless resource offers services from a similar unit at the Notre-Dame St. encampment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n As for the Outremont site itself, the mayor said the city is already planning a separate project that would include affordable and social housing.\u00a0While the project would still require decontaminating the land, she added, \u201cit will give us much more long-term, permanent housing.\u201d<\/p>\n The modular housing projects had been positioned by the previous administration as an innovative solution to countering the homelessness and housing crises.<\/p>\n During the municipal election campaign that led to her election last November, Martinez Ferrada argued the units aren\u2019t a dignified option for people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n Though she had softened her tone in recent months, she still maintained Montreal needed to look into how cities such as Gatineau and Halifax managed to launch similar projects at much lower costs.<\/p>\n Asked if she\u2019s concerned about the message abandoning the project sends \u2014 especially from an administration that has made homelessness its top priority \u2014 Martinez Ferrada\u00a0said she stands by the decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019ve made our priority very clear,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to do homelessness projects that are the right ones, with a cost that we can pay.\u201d<\/p>\n