David Giampa, left, and Sean Le Noble wrangle a couch up the stairs as they help friends move into a second-floor apartment in Verdun on Friday. Photo by John Mahoney/Montreal Gazette

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More than a hundred Montreal households found themselves on the street as Quebec’s traditional move-in day came to an end on Friday, victims of skyrocketing prices in the city’s rental market.

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Outside the city the situation was even worse, with smaller municipalities reporting unprecedented housing shortages. While Montreal’s vacancy rate is 3.7 percent, above the 3 percent rate considered manageable, cities like Longueuil report vacancy rates of 1.2 percent. In Ste-Thérèse and Blainville, the rate is 0.3 percent and Terrebonne is at 0.1 percent. Across Quebec, the housing rights group Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) estimates that more than 600 households were unable to find a place to stay as their leases expired on Friday. “These tenants facing serious difficulties around July 1 are only the tip of the iceberg and just the most visible element of the consequences of the housing crisis affecting renters in Quebec,” said FRAPRU spokeswoman Véronique Laflamme.

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Although the vacancy rate is higher in Montreal, rents have grown so expensive “we’re seeing a large number of people who don’t have a place, simply because they can’t afford it,” Laflamme said. Last year, more than 400 households in the city needed emergency help. While Montreal is seeing a building boom, most of the available units are too expensive for the majority of renters, he said. Outside of Montreal, vacancy rates in smaller cities such as Granby, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Rimouski have plummeted for a number of reasons, said Cédric Dussault, spokesman for the Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenants Associations of Quebec (RCLALQ). . Residents of larger urban centers have moved in search of cheaper housing, particularly during the pandemic. Real estate speculators looking for more affordable deals did the same, snapping up properties and driving up rents. Tourism has led owners to rent out their properties at higher prices on short-term sites like Airbnb. And companies expanding into the regions have rented properties in places like the North Shore and Abitibi-Témiscamingue to house their workers.

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“What we’re seeing is that in cities where lodging was still affordable, in places like Saguenay, Alma, Trois-Rivières, Rimouski, speculators were coming in and putting abusive rent increases or evicting tenants,” Dussault said. In Montreal, a recent study found that the average cost of rental apartments is now just under $1,200 a month, a 30 percent increase in a year from 2019 to 2020, and beyond the ability of many to pay. For more affordable apartments, costing under $925 a month, the vacancy rate is less than 2 percent in Montreal and less than one percent in the suburbs. In late May, the Quebec government announced it was spending $76 million in additional rents to allow people to stay at home, helping about 2,200 households with assistance equal to 25 percent of recipients’ incomes.

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The initiative is insufficient to meet the needs of an issue that has grown rapidly in three years but often remains invisible, as the hidden homeless find temporary lodging at the homes of friends or family or in motels or camps, Dussault said. “What’s remarkable about this crisis is how quickly it spread across Quebec, to the point where it’s become endemic,” he said. Smaller cities that don’t have the resources, funding or experience that a city like Montreal has are particularly hard hit, he said. Dussault notes that the Coalition Avenir Québec government promised during the last election campaign to build 15,000 subsidized housing units to cover previous government commitments. To date, he said, only 5,000 units have been completed. FRAPRU and Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante also laid the blame at the feet of the provincial and federal governments for withholding much-needed funds. The city requested $265 million over the next five years to fund its delayed housing projects, but received just $30 million, city officials said this week.

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To solve the province’s housing deficit, Quebec must invest in social housing, create a public rental registry and implement rent control, housing groups said. However, Dussault said the chances of that happening are slim with the current government, which has shown little transparency about the proposals. Traditionally, he said, the housing minister would meet with their agency at least once a year to discuss issues. Since the CAQ was elected in 2018, there have been no meetings, he said. [email protected] Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that only 500 of CAQ’s promised 15,000 subsidized homes had been built. The correct number is 5,000.

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