Housing shortage top of mind as parties square off in Quebec byelection
CBC
Philippe Desmarais is accustomed to meeting tenants who are stressed and rattled, but those feelings weren't always this palpable.
He says many renters are desperately scrambling to find a place to stay, and the situation is only getting worse.
Desmarais, who is part of the tenants' rights group POPIR based in Montreal's Saint-Henri neighbourhood, says his team has received about 60 calls about landlord repossessions in the last six months.
"Most of them are in bad faith," he said.
"We get more and more people coming and arriving here without appointments and in a panic, kind of, because they're looking for a new apartment and they can't find one."
Calls for more social and affordable housing are getting louder. Politicians vying for the vacant National Assembly seat in the Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne riding say they're listening.
Housing is one of the key issues in a riding where property values continue to soar and longtime residents feel like they're getting pushed out.
Monday's byelection is expected to be a tight race between the left-leaning Québec Solidaire (QS) and the provincial Liberals, who have represented the riding since it was created in 1992.
Both parties say a victory on Monday would help them hold the Coalition Avenir Québec government accountable.
As part of a 10-year federal-provincial agreement, $2.2 billion has been earmarked to renovate social housing units. So far, none of that money has been used.
The province's housing agency, the Société d'habitation du Québec (SHQ), says 75 per cent of social housing units are in poor or very poor condition, up from 66 percent the previous year.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, an immigration lawyer, is running for QS for the second time. He finished second in the riding during the last provincial election.
"Everybody is speaking about the housing crisis. There are so many people being renovicted," Cliche-Rivard said
Renoviction is a term used to describe landlords ousting tenants so they can upgrade and re-rent their apartments at higher prices.
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