Village Urbain, a non-profit organization aiming to facilitate community building in Quebec, was set to take a crucial first step in July by acquiring land in Lachine.
Posted at 12:00 p.m
Danielle Bonneau The Press
“We’re super happy,” says Estelle Le Roux Joky, who co-founded Village Urbain with Pascal Huynh and works closely with Lucy Chen. “But we will wait until we have gone to the notary before we celebrate. »
“We see the need, so it’s sure to motivate us,” says the organization’s executive director. When we started the incubator of the House of Social Innovation in 2019, there was already a housing shortage. We saw populations getting older, people becoming more alone with fewer and fewer connections between them. The soil was already very fertile for community living, allowing for more communal living. In March 2020, the pandemic exacerbated all the problems of social isolation and gave us the wind in our sails. »
Ecological and economic interest
Shared apartments appeal to people who want to be less alone, share an occasional meal, and engage in activities with their neighbors. “Each one has their own totally independent accommodation, with their own kitchen, bathroom etc., but the accommodations are reduced to a minimum as residents have common spaces and resources, such as a large communal kitchen, workroom or similar workshop where people have the opportunity to meet, she says. This obviously represents an ecological interest, but also an economic one by creating an affordable way of life. »
Village Urbain is working on various projects, including in Laval, where no location has yet been found. The most advanced is Lachine, where a public consultation and referendum took place. The property, to be acquired in July and on which a three and four-storey complex with around thirty condominiums and ten rental units will be built, is located on rue Notre-Dame, on the site of the former Vitrerie Lachine.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Estelle Le Roux Joky is very close to the land available for Village Urbain to acquire in Lachine in July. This one is on the other side of the barrier in the background.
We could call ourselves a municipal real estate developer in the sense that we find land, design projects, develop them and then sell or rent them out. But we are a non-profit organization and our goal is to create shared apartments that remain affordable in the long term.
Estelle Le Roux Joky, co-founder of Village Urbain
The imminent first step, the purchase of the land in Lachine, would not be possible without the financial support of the Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins and a philanthropic organization that Estelle Le Roux Joky sees as a partner.
The success of Habitat Quebec
“The issue that Village Urbain is working on has become even more relevant over the past year, not only in the Montreal region,” said André Fortin, account manager and strategic advisor for housing and collective business services at Caisse solidarity economy Desjardins.
“Village Urbain is trying to create something that is affordable from the start and will seek to remain so by introducing mechanisms such as the creation of a land trust and clauses in sales contracts to ensure units do not become less affordable Years, explains Mr. Fortin. The first project of this kind, Habitat Québec, which we financially supported and which was completed in 2013, is an extremely important achievement from an architectural, environmental and community point of view, but according to the owners, they have a small problem because they did it originally no plan to limit the value of the Shares. This project was affordable at the beginning and is getting less and less beyond the resale.
“Estelle is a very interesting social entrepreneur,” he continues. In addition to running a project in Lachine, she wants to use this model to replicate it across Quebec. She also wants to create a mechanism that allows tenants to become owners to ensure rotation in the spirit of social diversity. »