A Montreal family who let their children live in a mold-ridden apartment was reported by their landlord to the DPJ, which kept the reports.
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This extreme case of substandard Montreal housing will cost the owner $50,000 to renovate.
The parents and their three young children recently secretly left their apartment. They lived in the shelter, which cost $725 a month, for about four years. They paid their rent, but their lifestyle made the place miserable and uninhabitable, according to the property’s owner.
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Photographs of the four and a half apartments obtained from TVA Nouvelles show that the accommodation was in perfect condition at the time of the rental four years ago. It has become an unsanitary and moldy apartment over the months.
A disgusting smell pervaded the other quarters. The neighbors complained. When the manager saw the inventory, he reported to the DYP.
“The tenant dried his laundry on the closet doors, the wet towels. He told me he never used the hood. There were three children [qui vivaient là] and the youngest was six months old. I have a six-month-old child at home and I said to myself: I would never let my child sleep or live in this dirt, this rot,” denounces the owner vigorously.
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For its part, CORPIQ denounces the rule that prevents the owner from increasing the rent after investing a colossal sum in the renovation.
“Today we have an owner who will take at least 20 years to find the beginning of the money to invest in homes that the government and its regulations will force them to re-let for $725.” […] Clause G has never made sense since it was introduced. “It forces landlords to sub-let between two tenants at the same price,” said Marc-André Plante, spokesman for the Corporation of Quebec Property Owners (CORPIQ).
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Nicole Cliche represents DPJ (SPTSSS) workers at union level–CSN) explains that interventions after reports of unsanitary conditions in children are the order of the day.
“We have intervened at this level on several occasions. However, Quebec has eliminated baby alerts, which allow people concerned about the arrival of a child in a risky living environment to report their concerns to the DPJ once they are pregnant. We find it worrying to see babies being born in difficult conditions,” explains Ms. Cliche.
The baby alarm is a practice that is considered “discriminatory against certain groups” and would contribute to their “over-representation in the youth protection system”, said the office of Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant last spring.
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Instead, the government announced the establishment of a “plan for preventive and intensive services during the prenatal period,” which should make it possible to “ensure strict and proactive surveillance from pregnancy when a child is expected to be born in a family environment.” Risk of abuse,” the statement said.
The Office of the Housing Minister was asked to respond and said it was listening to the concerns of apartment building owners.
“In the autumn there will be the Parliamentary Committee and we will listen to the solutions and constructive suggestions that groups, organizations and others can bring to us for discussion,” it says.