Mobilizing to solve the housing crisis

In the last few weeks, many voices have been raised to solve the housing crisis. CORPIQ has answered the call and has submitted an important brief with 32 recommendations to provide quality and affordable housing for all.

(Consult the brief in French here)

Based on this objective and reading various expert reports, it became apparent that all solutions must converge to develop the housing stock. Some 100,000 units are currently lacking, and this gap will grow year after year if we do not immediately take the right measures to increase the supply. The objective is so extraordinary that it seems inescapable that a minister be entirely dedicated to it to solve the equation. Developing is really the sum of "financing", "unblocking", and "protecting".

Financing means understanding that all people who need social or affordable housing have access to it. It is the full responsibility of the government to provide for these needs, estimated at 35,000 low-cost housing units. The revival of social housing construction is therefore fundamental. It will be difficult to achieve this in the short term, as there is a production capacity issue. However, there is a lever: a rent supplement program (programme de supplément au loyer: PSL). There are many advantages to this program, including the fact that the government does not have the burden of managing a housing stock. At least for the next few years, when social housing will not be built in sufficient quantity, this program must be strengthened. In addition, the HLM network must be massively financed to make available hundreds of housing units that are currently blocked.

Unblocking means understanding what is blocking Quebec from obtaining a better rental stock. Let's start with the following observation: the current regulations devalue renovation and construction. Soft density is the right way to meet both environmental objectives and affordability targets, both for tenants and for society, by avoiding urban sprawl. To achieve this, it is necessary to review policies that are contradictory to this objective (taxation and fees), but also to systematically introduce secondary and intergenerational housing.

The modernization of the method of setting rents is also absolutely fundamental, without which the number of dwellings that leave the market will continue to grow. Financial incentives must be updated to stop the deterioration of the housing stock. Experts have demonstrated the urgency of this modernization, there is no time to lose.

Protecting the rental stock also means protecting tenants and promoting sustainable development. Protecting tenants means fighting illegal evictions by effective means: increasing the time required to notify tenants, obliging landlords to include municipal permits obtained and a tenant's rights and duties sheet associated with the work. Protecting it also means supporting the community work that helps the most vulnerable tenants and abandoning the idea of imposing new fees on landlords or bureaucratizing insalubrity through certifications or registries. We need to stop investing in documentation and invest in housing, and in the people who live in it, who are in dire need of help with their health and personal development.

There is no fatality in the housing crisis. There are no magic solutions either. We simply need to increase the supply and value of rental property in pragmatic ways and get to work now.