Amid Montreal’s housing crisis, 1,700 vacant low-rent apartments (HLM) could be rented quickly to shorten the endless waiting list that still afflicts more than 24,000 people.
“It’s not far from 10% of the rental stock in the midst of a housing crisis. I’ve never seen that in 30 years,” protests Robert Pilon, Coordinator of the Federation of Low-Rental Housing Tenants of Quebec (FLHMQ).
A total of 2,200 apartments are empty, four times more than normal, he estimates. About 500 are “barricaded” or being held for tenants who need to be relocated because of major work in their homes.
But the Office Municipal d’Habitation de Montréal (OMHM) “is lagging behind” to rent the remaining 1,700 units, he says.
These could be quickly rehabilitated after minor or major work, such as the destruction of vermin or mold. Some apartments are even available for rent.
A situation he considers “unacceptable” given that 24,312 people are on the waiting list, without the tenants already resident in HLM who need to be relocated for security reasons or major works in their home.
Tina-Lili Gagné is among those who had to be transferred to another HLM due to extensive works in the 108 housing units of Habitations Saint-André in the Ville-Marie district.
The mother-of-four waited more than five years for temporary housing before work began on her run-down, roach-infested apartment last August.
“I could not anymore. I was supposed to move and they didn’t move me. It was uncertainty and total insecurity, with no signed lease,” she testifies.
bed bugs
Antoine, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals, has been waiting for nearly five years.
As soon as he moved to the Îlets Saint-Martin in the south-west, he wanted to be transferred.
Struggling with chronic bed bug infestations, his five and a half are also too small for him and his four children. His wife went to live with a roommate who could no longer take it under these conditions.
“When they come to work, it’s cosmetic. They don’t address the underlying problem. destroy them [sic] accommodation and have to come back later because the neighbor is infected,” he says.
The OMHM could not give the total number of units for rent, but points out that the figure of 2,200 is “not impossible”.
“There is a reason for each of the vacant units,” says spokesman Mathieu Vachon.
The pandemic has been hurting, he adds, causing as many delays in rentals as in construction.
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