Founder of Montreal's Housing Hotline seeks help to keep decades-long service running
Arnold Bennett launched hotline in 1970s, ran a housing clinic for 40 years to to help tenants
Reminiscing with a chuckle, Arnold Bennett describes his younger self as "one of those student radicals back in the day."
Bennett first wrote an article about tenants' rights in 1969 for the McGill Daily, one of the university's campus newspapers.
Within a few years, he had established himself as a go-to resource on the issue of renters' rights in Quebec, going door-to-door and encouraging tenants to get together and speak up against housing injustices.
In 1974, he launched the Housing Hotline — a phone service that helps frustrated tenants, and some landlords — navigate disputes. Decades later, however, Bennett is seeking help to avoid shutting it down.
There were much fewer housing advocacy groups then there are now and services in English were limited, Bennett recalls, but he's adamant that his hotline still helps address a major need.
Fighting for your rights, he says, involves more than just knowing the law.
"People still need interpretation. They need to be pointed strategically in certain directions. It's not just a matter of knowing what the rules are," Bennett said.
"You have to know what's the best approach that you should use in dealing with a certain landlord or a certain problem, how to organize with your neighbours, how to use the city inspectors."
For much of the last 50 years or so, Bennett has funded the hotline out of pocket, using his revenue from a business he used to run.
He's now raising funds to help cover basic expenses like a landline, a cellphone or internet access.
"I have fees for certain accounting services for reports that I have to submit to the government," he said. "Even before you start talking about paying for an assistant, or anything like that — it adds up."
In addition to the hotline, Bennett ran a housing clinic from 1981 up until 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced such in-person activities to shut down. The free clinics were attended by housing lawyers and legal assistants who could offer legal advice and represent tenants at the housing tribunal.
Bennett also served as a Montreal city councillor during the 1970s and 80s.
'A major loss' if hotline shuts down
Bob Jones, a resident of Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood, remembers walking into the housing clinic in 1988 with a friend who was getting evicted from his home.
He described the clinic that day as "utter chaos," with 80 to 100 people waiting in line to see the clinic's staff to get advice. Jones, who had just left a job, offered to volunteer at the clinic, and he eventually spent 20 years working for or with Bennett.
"Some of us would actually go with them to the [housing tribunal] and we'd prepare their cases, keep them calm," he said. "We weren't allowed to talk or plead but we had already prepared them beforehand so that they knew what to say and when to say it."
Marvin Rotrand, a former Montreal city councillor, says he met Bennett just before the 1982 municipal elections. He said the tenants' rights advocate's ability to provide "effective service in English" is something a lot of the newer housing groups still fail to provide today.
"A lot of people turn to Arnold," Rotrand said.
"Clearly, it would be a major loss in services if the Housing Hotline had to close."
Bennett is confident the hotline will remain, even if the service isn't what it once was.
"They'll have to carry me out on a stretcher," he said laughing.
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With files from Gabriel Guindi and Shuyee Lee