Housing Assistance – The Government on Tour to Explain its New Guidelines

After having invested – or spent – billions on the construction of social housing units in recent years through the AccèsLogis program, the Quebec government is currently adopting a new and more flexible housing assistance project. Its intention is to focus more precisely on the rent supplement program (PSL) in areas where sufficient housing units are available.

This financial assistance directly offered to tenants and advocated for decades by CORPIQ, provides quick assistance to more people without competing with the private market which is not subsidized.

A tour of the regions to explain this new approach has already begun and will continue until autumn. The Société d’Habitation du Québec (SHQ) is inviting everyone who is interested, including landlords, to express their opinions on the form provided for this purpose.

According to CORPIQ’s analysis, the average cost of building a social housing unit in Quebec is about $ 180,000, compared to $ 122,000 in 2005 and $ 77,000 in 2002. Meanwhile, the average vacancy rate of private dwellings reached 4.3% which is the highest since the mid-90s.