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Amid an ongoing housing crisis, the city says more people than last year are expected to request help on moving day next week.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told reporters Wednesday that more than twice the number of people as last year have already requested aid with the city’s housing department in finding a dwelling, finding storage for their belongings or other help.
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On July 1, when most leases expire in the province, the city usually helps a few dozen families, couples or individuals who were not able to find affordable homes after leaving their old rental units. Plante said the city is ready for the influx this year. Roughly 250 households have already requested help and Plante said that is roughly double the number of requests the city received last year. That doesn’t necessarily mean that double the number of people need help, Plante pointed out, because last year, there could have been more requests made in individual boroughs.
“But we know the number isn’t decreasing, unfortunately,” Plante said.
Benoit Dorais, the executive committee member in charge of housing, said there are a few families and a few people living alone, but the greatest increase is among seniors and people dealing with mental health issues.
“We’re working with the province to get more temporary lodgings for that reason,” Dorais said.
Plante added she’s concerned to see the number of seniors struggling to find affordable homes.
“Especially for elders, I think this shows that something is wrong and, even in shelters, we’re seeing much more elders (among the unhoused),” Plante said. “To me, this is a big fail, not only for our society, but for Canada as a whole, because this is an issue across the country. I believe if 20 years ago, we would have had a goal of keeping 20 per cent of housing out of the speculative market, as we’re doing now, we would have been in a better place.”
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Plante was referring to the city’s goal to focus on building social and affordable housing to the point where, by 2050, 20 per cent of all housing units would be reserved for those with lower means.
She said the city has put in place measures to encourage such housing development and has been working to purchase buildings that can later be converted to social or affordable housing.
But those are long-term strategies and the Plante administration was called out by the city’s opposition last year for not giving more money to non-profit groups working with those currently in crisis. The Plante administration had doubled that amount in the 2023 budget to $6 million, which remained the same for 2024.
Plante balked when asked Wednesday why her administration chose to keep the funding at the same level, when it appears clear the crisis is worsening, and whether those groups could get more help from the city to deal with this current July 1 crunch. The opposition had requested that the Plante administration double that amount again in 2024 in a motion it brought to council last October. But Plante’s Projet Montréal party voted against the motion and maintained its level of funding in the 2024 budget.
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“All I can say is that we have always been there for not-for-profit groups,” Plante said. “Of course, we will continue to be there. We doubled the number (in 2023). That, the opposition doesn’t say.”
At the time, Benoit Langevin, the opposition critic on homelessness matters, said he was disappointed with Plante’s decision.
“We’re not talking about a lot of money,” Langevin said. “The Plante administration last year doubled the budget to $6 million in 2021. With the inflation we’ve seen since then, the increase in people living on the street and the situation in food banks, how can they think that this amount is still sufficient?”
On Wednesday, Plante would not commit to increasing the annual amount in the 2025 budget.
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