Allison Hanes: Rent supplements a welcome Band-Aid for housing crisis – Montreal Gazette

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The Quebec government announces $76 million for rent supplements to keep people in their homes or aid those looking for new ones.

With Montreals annual moving day six weeks away, many are bracing for a particularly severe housing crunch this year especially with a perfect storm of rising rents and inflation pushing many people to the financial brink.

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Housing advocates have been holding protests to denounce rising rents, a shortage of affordable units and the increasingly common phenomenon of renovictions, where landlords renovate then jack up prices. Last month, demonstrators in Verdun calling for a provincial registry of rents and stricter price controls inadvertently interrupted a commemoration of the First World War battle of Yprs.

Meanwhile, Mayor Valrie Plante, who recently unveiled a rental registry for the city and a charter for responsible landlords, has been sparring with the Quebec government over whether there is a full-blown housing crisis. The province was loath to admit the increasingly tight housing market constitutes a crisis until it became clear the vacancy rate in the regions is in many cases worse than the metropolis.

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With as many as 200,000 households poised to move on July 1, when the majority of leases expire in Quebec, the government on Thursday announced $76 million for rent supplements to keep people in their homes or help those looking for new ones.

Last July 1, about 400 Montrealers and scores more across the province found themselves unhoused.

To head off a recurrence or worse Municipal Affairs Minister Andre Laforest said the assistance will cover the cost of rent in private units, amounting to 25 per cent of recipients incomes. The money will support to 2,200 households, including 500 people experiencing homelessness and 100 survivors of conjugal violence.

Compared to social and affordable housing units, which require more substantial funding and take time to build, rent supplements are a simple and flexible tool. Advocates for the unhoused have been calling for more such direct aid to prevent homelessness.

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James Hughes, CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, said ending up on the street, even for a short while, is a trauma worth avoiding.

Getting rent supplements into peoples hands is magical, he said, but also in the hands of our teams at the Old Brewery and other organizations because it allows us to go into the market and accompany people in finding the housing of their choosing.

Still, as Welcome Hall Mission CEO Samuel Watts notes, not all rent supplements are equal.

What we really need in our sector is rent supplements that are tied to an individual, rather than linked to a particular apartment, because it gives us the flexibility, depending on the different needs of people, he said. Watts added that additional funding is needed to help support people once they are in their apartments, otherwise it isnt very helpful.

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He noted that low-income households already spend a disproportionate share of their income on basics like food and shelter. So painful inflation, which is calculated based on a basket of goods for middle-income families, hits the poorest even harder. At the Missions two supermarket-style food banks in St-Henri and Montreal North, Watts said staff have been hearing a lot from clients struggling to make rent.

Were certainly seeing a lot of people who are worried about losing their housing, Watts said. A rent supplement for a family on the razors edge and in danger of falling off, thats a good thing.

In its recently published portrait of the housing situation, the Communaut mtropolitaine de Montral, a body made up of 82 municipalities in the region, noted that the vacancy rate is low, but its even lower when it comes to more affordable units. For instance, the vacancy rate is 3.7 per cent in Montreal overall, and 6.3 per cent downtown, but less than 2 per cent for housing costing under $925 a month on the Island of Montreal and only 1 per cent in Laval, Longueuil and beyond.

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While the typical rent increase is 4.2 per cent, the cost of units that are actually on the market is much higher. For instance, the average rent in Montreal may be $910 a month. But apartments for rent are going for closer to $1,198 a month.

Thats a spectacular increase of 30 per cent, which has grave consequences on tenants in Greater Montreal, the report stated. In brief, there are fewer units available and those that are cost much more.

Even if rents are relatively reasonable compared to other North American cities and remain subject to controls by the Tribunal administratif du logement, Montreals days as a paradise for renters are clearly over.

Emergency rent assistance is a welcome, but temporary, Band-Aid. But its going to take much more to tackle the bigger problem of housing affordability.

ahanes@postmedia.com

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Allison Hanes: Rent supplements a welcome Band-Aid for housing crisis - Montreal Gazette