Nearly 1,300 Quebec families still looking for a home on Moving Day
CTV
It's Moving Day on Monday for many Quebecers. However, as anticipated by organizations, July 1 is a difficult day for many tenants, as nearly 1,300 households are still being assisted by a housing search service.
It's Moving Day on Monday for many Quebecers. However, as anticipated by organizations, July 1 is a difficult day for many tenants, as nearly 1,300 households are still being assisted by a housing search service.
According to Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), "the picture is very bleak."
According to the latest compilation by the Société d'habitation du Québec (SHQ), there were nearly 1,300 tenant households today [Monday] who were still actively accompanied by a housing search service, either because they were looking for housing for July 1 or for the next few weeks," she said in an interview.
She pointed out that the housing search period was "extremely difficult" this year. The vacancy rate is below the market equilibrium threshold of 3% across Quebec, Laflamme said.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) annual report published last January, the vacancy rate in the Greater Montreal area stood at 1.5 per cent. In Quebec City, the vacancy rate is 0.9 per cent, while in Gatineau it's 1.1 per cent.
Although tenants are moving much less than a few years ago, demand for assistance services has been strong. "Help services, according to the SHQ compilation, received 9,200 calls this year, so that's huge," Laflamme said.
"Over the past year, relocation assistance services have been set up in several municipalities. It's new that so many relocation assistance services have been set up; there are over forty in Quebec. A few years ago, it was only in the biggest cities that we saw such assistance services," she added.
