The End of Quebec's Social Housing Program Causes Concern about access to low income housing in Montreal and Quebec

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government axed Quebec’s social housing program, AccèsLogis, which has been the province's social housing program for more than 20 years.

Local 514 spoke with Catherine Lussier from Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) about the fate of social housing in Quebec and how the loss of AccésLogis will impact this. 

AccèsLogis will be replaced by the Société d’habitation du Québec. The new program requires developers to allocate 30% of their builds as affordable housing, however, developers are required to keep these prices affordable for only 10 years. This means in a decade, we may be in a greater crisis of accessing affordable housing than we are now.

Under the Société d’habitation du Québec, there are currently no new low-rental housing projects being built. The program was announced by the government in 2021. 

In Montreal, there are nearly 23,700 people waiting on a list to access low income housing. In the whole province, the number is around 37,600.

Social housing advocates and organizations fear for the future of Montreal’s affordable housing and access to housing for low income people.

Lussier said the private sector has no interest in offering low income housing. She added that after ten years, developers can increase pricing as much they want, compared to AccésLogis, which leads to a shorter time of affordable housing being offered.

She said that the new program opens the door to private sector, stating that she believes this change from the provincial government relies on the private sector to solve housing crisis. 

The provincial government did not respond to Local 514 on the changes in Quebec's social housing program.

Lussier said that if we want to develop social housing, we need to have one program to deliver it, which was what AccèsLogis was.