Over 100 Montreal households, nearly 700 in Quebec, left without a roof of their own on moving day

Under the rain, in the Montreal neighbourhood of Parc-Extension, Camille Cloutier and three of her roommates spent July 1 — known in Quebec as moving day — like many others in the province, carrying their belongings into their new apartment. Although the space is bigger than the last one, Cloutier says there's already a lot of work to do. 

"There's a problem with the lights in the apartment. The paint is not good. It's really dirty. The price is really high for what we have now, so we're gonna do all the jobs by ourselves," she said.

Cloutier says the high cost of rent and scarcity of affordable accommodation options mean she and her roommates, recent university graduates, don't have much of a choice when it comes to securing affordable housing.

While they are not alone, hundreds of Quebecers are worse off this July 1, struggling to find a roof over their heads on a day that leases typically start in the province.

In Montreal, 107 people are still without a lease today, with 25 families temporarily housed by the city, numbers that are consistent with last year's figures, says Philippe Sabourin, spokesperson for the city of Montreal. 

Meanwhile, across the province, a total of 680 households have not signed a lease, according to the data provided by  the housing advocacy group Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU).

Leaders, community groups call for action

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says the city has measures in place for moving day, but giving families temporary places to live is far from a long-term solution. 

"This is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot of families that will come forward, maybe in the next coming days," said Plante on Saturday. "It's not sustainable for anyone, not for the city or those families…. The solution is how do we protect the existing affordable housing market that we have."

Plante says the city is taking novel steps in purchasing private property for social housing and putting measures in place to curb renovictions.

However, she said the Quebec government has to do more.

Meeting with tenants in Montreal's Villeray neighbourhood, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, called on the provincial government to build more affordable housing units and take immediate action.

"We need to do things now to just calm the frenzy of rent hikes," he said. 

Nadeau-Dubois called for the creation of a rent registry, a measure demanded by the mayors of 14 Quebec municipalities, to inform renters about previous rent charged by landlords. He also demanded a moratorium on evictions in areas hit hard by the housing crisis. 

"Quebec is a rich society. There is no excuse for people not to have a roof over their heads," he said, adding that aside from people with nowhere to go, "there are thousands of families today that will be poorer than yesterday."

Rents in Quebec's major cities shot up by an average of 14 per cent between 2022 and 2023, according to calculations by tenants' rights group Regroupement des committees logement et associations de tenants du Québec (RCLALQ). 

Organizations like Maison du Père, which supports people experiencing homelessness in downtown Montreal, are anticipating greater numbers of newly unhoused people in need of their services. 

"The reality is that there is not enough housing. The reality is that subsidies are not in line with the rental market. The reality is that there is no housing for people who are in precarious situations," said Rudy Escoffier, who heads Projet Logement Montréal with Maison du Père.

Outside of Montreal, cities in Quebec have seen increasingly low vacancy rates in recent years.

"We have rarely seen in Quebec a July 1 where there were tenants without a lease in as many regions, as many municipalities," said FRAPRU spokesperson Véronique Laflamme.

In Quebec City, Trois-Rivières and Drummondville, the vacancy rates are respectively 1.7 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 0.4 per cent. 

Quebec City Coun. Marie-Pier Boucher, who is responsible for housing and social housing, says her city desperately needs to build more housing units to reverse the negative trend. 

"We really need to increase the supply of housing in Quebec. We have a vacancy rate of 1.7 per cent, which is really really too low."

Trouble in the moving business?

Moving companies may also be feeling the impact of the province's housing woes. 

Richard Hottot, owner of Swiftway Moving, has made a living for the past 28 years helping people move into their new homes. He says his business is down by about a quarter.

"Usually, we do about 120 moves in June. This year it's about 70," said Hottot.

People who can afford to are staying put, unsure of what their finances and housing prospects will be like in a year's time, he says. 

Reach out if you need help

If you are one of the Quebecers who has not found accommodation or a place to sleep, you can call the Société d'Habitation du Québec, the province's housing agency, toll-free at 1-800-463-4315. Montrealers are also invited to call 311.