Editorial: Housing rights should not be a waiting game
As rent prices rise and housing becomes less accessible, the near impossible quest to find good-conditioned, affordable, and sizable living accomodations has left people in Quebec fighting for their rights.
On Feb. 12, a march calling for more social housing was held throughout the streets of downtown Montreal. The recent demonstration was one of many calling for changes. Demand is increasing, and little vacancy is leaving Quebecers scrambling to secure stable housing. In the past year, 800 households in Montreal alone have been added to the waitlist for government-subsidized housing units leaving the total waitlist at over 23,000 households.
According to Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain, crucial programs such as AccèsLogis, a program which provides resources for social and community housing, have been at a standstill with no allocated funds to carry on with future projects. Today, as the people from Quebec plead with Premier François Legault to prioritize social housing in his budget, there are over 1,000 housing units waiting for the financial green light to be built, according to FRAPRU.
Existing social housing is being neglected, as many lack maintenance upkeep and are deeply in need of renovations. Landlords are illegally evicting tenants, a higher percentage of women fleeing abusive situations risk landlord discrimination, and some people are experiencing houselessness for the first time. Social housing funding needs to be the priority; Montrealers are simply not safe and Legault needs to stop ignoring his people's needs. The housing crisis is larger than condominium construction or cases of renoviction, it is the entirety of an inequitable system rooted in capitalism.
While steps have been taken towards slowly resolving Quebec’s housing crisis, there remains a need to question our government's empty promises. Housing Minister Andrée Laforest announced a new $200 million affordable housing program on Feb. 3. But, with the refusal of a rent registry program due to its high implementation cost, we can’t help but question not allocating those funds to existing social housing programs like AccèsLogis.
As existing programs wait for adequate funding, we wait to see what impact the emerging ones have. The livelihoods of many Montrealers are at stake.
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