In a bid to contain the housing crisis, the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) is setting ambitious goals in its first housing policy unveiled Thursday, but many of the actions it must take depend on collaboration and funding coming from of the Quebec government.
Posted at 3:08pm
“There is an urgent need for action,” launched Stéphane Boyer, mayor of Laval and vice-president of the CMM Council, at a press conference. “We have to find solutions to reduce citizens’ housing costs. »
In the more than 80-page document, the CMM highlights the extent to which the current crisis affects all population groups, especially low-income households, in the 82 municipalities of its territory.
“Since 2011, the sale price of apartments in the greater Montreal area has increased by 90%, while household income has increased by only about 40%. In terms of rents, the rates of increase over the past three years are the largest in almost 20 years,” the document said.
We also find that a third of renters (200,000 households) spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, which is considered unaffordable.
One of the goals of the city’s housing policy is to reduce by 2031 the number of households in need of core housing – those living in inadequate, unaffordable or unsuitably sized housing – by a quarter. In 2021, there were 132,000 households in this situation in the territory of the CMM.
Another goal: to increase housing starts to over 35,000 units per year, compared to an average of just 25,000 units per year over the past five years. However, the CMM recognizes that 55,000 housing starts per year would be needed to ensure housing affordability.
We also intend to restore a 3% vacancy rate in the rental market, ie a balanced rate, while this rate is below 1% in several sectors of the greater Montreal area, particularly on the north and south coasts.
To achieve this, the housing policy presents 26 actions to be carried out, in particular the implementation of a support program for the smallest communities to help them find strategies to densify their territory and increase social diversity.
Municipalities can also act by requalifying various areas for housing and favoring non-profit organizations, cooperatives or foundations that want to develop the housing stock.
Most importantly, we emphasize that we must reach out to Quebec to increase funding for social housing.
“The message we are sending is that Quebec has a responsibility to move, there is a lot of pressure. Cities are ready to move, but we need funding from Quebec,” says Guillaume Tremblay, mayor of Mascouche and chair of the Housing and Social Cohesion Commission.
“We don’t just want to build homes, we want to create living environments that are mixed and inclusive, in which local public transport plays an important role and that promote a way of life on our territory that is part of sustainable development,” says Stéphane Boyer.
However, according to the Collectif de recherche et d’action sur l’habitat (CRACH), the CMM’s plan is having no effect and is too timid to really do anything about the housing crisis. Group spokesman Martin Blanchard believes housing policy should have called for more public housing.
As the real estate market falls victim to speculative madness, “the CMM lets this speculative market define what affordable housing is,” he denounces.
He also deplores the fact that solutions falling under municipal jurisdiction have not been adopted, such as Airbnb regulation, the establishment of a rental register to control increases, stricter monitoring of building permits that can be used for renovations and a better enforcement of sanitation regulations.
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90% increase in sales price of apartments for 10 years in Greater Montreal
Source: Statistics Canada
40% increase in median household income over the past 10 years in the greater Montreal area
Source: Statistics Canada