In Montréal on July 2, 2020, at least 373 households had no housing: hundreds of little ones without a safe pillow to rest their toutou, of parents wracked by worry, of elderly people anxiously awake all night …

 

Access to adequate housing is linked to fundamental rights in the Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne. Although not covered by the  Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in 1996 Canada ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes the right to adequate housing. How is it that there are still people from whom we withhold this right? This was the topic of a virtual meeting held on June 29, 2020 by the NDP Riding Association for Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Sœurs: July 1st:  It’s time to push our housing policy, not renters!.  About 30 citizens participated in a lively session filled with facts, history, revelation and … inspiration! The panelists were:

 

• Hassan El Asri, housing rights activist and expert on social housing;
• Sophie Thiébaut, ex-candidate in our riding; and
• Alexandre Boulerice, Federal Member of Parliament for Rosemont and Deputy Director of the New Democratic Party of Canada.

 

The session began with the acknowledgment that it took place on unceded Indigenous land.

Below are the highlights of the meeting. You can find the complete recording here.

 

• The housing crisis is structural: government policies treat housing as a consumer good and therefore as a target for investment aimed at profitability. This commodification of a fundamental right renders citizens with low earning power vulnerable to both the absence of adequate housing, in quantity and quality, and to unjust financial pressure.
  • In Québec, 96% of residential housing stock is private property (compared, for example, to the Netherlands, where it is only 60%: a shameful difference, as our panelists so rightly declared).

 

• Needs are enormous and immediate in Canada, in Québec, and in our riding. For example, unoccupancy rate in the southwest borough is 0.3% – 10 times less than is considered normal for a neighberhood! And, the price of rent has gone up by more than 5% in one year!
  • This situation results from the historical and current disinvestment by liberal and conservative federal governments in social housing.  In 1974, when the Liberal government renounced its role in social housing, it abandoned, according to the FRAPRU,  the construction of 500,000 new units, including 75,000 in Québec.

• Even though Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy of 2017 flashed a promise of new investment, of the $15 billion of new money promised over 11 years, almost all of it is concentrated in the last five. Even though the current needs are extreme, the money will not follow – if it ever does – before 2025! And, it will only be spent on the condition that the provinces invest an equivalent amount!

 

• The federal government’s words and actions are at odds: 

• • It gives with one hand and takes away with the other. Although the government offered financing for social housing in their national strategy, they also cut funds for financing agreements for the social housing stock that it had previously constructed.

• It says yes and no at the same time for access to adequate housing for all: as citizens, we cannot claim our access to this fundamental right in the Courts (as we can, for example for the right to vote): the  International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is not legally binding. In 2017 – the same year as the Canadian Homelessness Strategy – the NDP tabled a motion in Parliament in which would have enabled legal action against a government that failed to respect the right to housing – and the Liberals voted against it!

 

• The implementation of the Canadian Strategy is disappointing. Although well-received at the outset because of the complete lack of action under the preceding conservative government, its implementation has been terribly slow and unequal.
  • Of the 432 projects submitted since 2018, only 23 have been funded – 5%! Therefore, of the 4,500 new units set to be built, only 700 are underway.
  • 91% of the funds to date have been allocated to Toronto Community Housing! There is only one project in Québec, in the Laurentians, with 38 housing units.
  • We also learned that Québec is the only province to not have signed its bilateral agreement with the federal government under the Strategy… Because of the wording of the accountability reporting – so absurd!
  • We noted also that there is no specific strategy for Indigenous communities, which have among the most pressing needs for housing.
  • It is also clear that COVID has accentuated the difficulties faced by people in fragile economic situations, making more acute and visible the problems that prevent them from accessing healthy and safe living conditions.

 

• The NDP is highly engaged in the fight for decent housing for all as a fundamental right – which is far from a reality in our society. As part of its commitment to improving living conditions of the least well-off, social and affordable housing – because it constitutes the biggest household expense and is, therefore, the strongest antipoverty lever – is at the front of the NDP’s platform.
  • When in power, the NDP will fill the gap of the lost 500,000 social and affordable housing units – at a pace that reflects the urgency of the situation: 50% in the first five years. It also proposes fiscal measures to stimulate construction and renovation in ways that are coherent with our environmental objectives.

 

What are the solutions?

The discussion ended with a concrete and inspiring example of how we can immediately address the situation in our riding!

• Although accessing sufficient, well-situated and non-uncontaminated land is the thorniest problem for the construction of social housing, our riding includes public lands that are completely appropriate for social housing and which already belong to the federal government i.e. to all of us as citizens: 8.5 hectares south of the Peel Basin. A citizens’ group in Pointe-St-Charles has been active for some time in planning and proposing a complete neighborhood at a human scale on this property, which would include a mix of usages including social and affordable housing and local services and businesses. The panelists described the barriers and challenges that government policies and processes have put in the way of the citizens’ group, in the context of private property speculation. But it is an inspiration to think that on this land, we could build 1000 housing units! While this wouldn’t of course satisfy all needs, it would be a great step forward.

 

Citizens’ questions

The panelists’ explanations helped us better understand the housing crisis and to shine a light on the injustices that it causes. In the question period, citizens asked pertinent questions and made incisive remarks about:

• The need to act on short-term rentals of like AirB&B. Very present in our riding as well as elsewhere in the country, it has the effect of reducing available rental housing. While the federal jurisdiction is limited in what it can do about this, the NDP has publicly supported our colleagues at Québec Solidaire in their pressuring of the Québec government on this file;
• The possibility of alternative measures to improve access to affordable housing. These could include: reducing speculation related to the commodification of housing through price controls, taxes on private investors, and supporting the development of cooperatives. To tighten the screws on private markets, it will be necessary to revise social and fiscal policy at the federal level. At the same time of a bigger system of nonprofit social and community, housing would have a tempering effect on the speculative market, as it offers a gateway out of the logic of housing as a commodity. The NDP’s platform also proposes financial penalties for foreign purchasers who leave their housing units empty.
• The need to consider adaptation to climate change, especially the risks of flooding to some houses.  On this issue, the NDP’s environmental position suggests that we should respect ecosystems and let nature take its course, while at the same time compensating fairly any of the homeowners affected.
• In our context where 30% of the population is living with a handicap and 100% of the population will age, lack of access to the physical accessibility of housing is a huge concern. It was noted that existing programs are difficult and even traumatizing for renters to access. For the NDP, it is clear that respect for human equality is central and that there should be mandatory standards to ensure universal accessibility (in transport and in employment as well). We note that the federal government will have an ideal opportunity to address accessibility when it renovates existing social housing stock. 
• The lack of social housing in First Nations communities is a terrible problem because it is a  source of violence and social problems: as documented by the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This needs to be addressed.

 

We hope that this meeting was able to interest, inform, and sensitize our citizens to these issues. Please stay tuned and join us for upcoming activities!