The housing crisis, as we know, gets away. Everywhere in Quebec, it is the Far West for thousands of Quebecers whose only sin, it seems, is not to be owners.
The reality is that the breathtaking increase of 71% of the price of rents since 2019 has required more and more citizens, low -income or middle class, to choices that are not.
Either stay in poorly maintained accommodation, to whitewash in their car, a trailer or at someone, to bleed white to pay the rent or to suffer squarely in the street.
However, this crisis has been gaining momentum for years. First of all, because political decision -makers, all levels combined, refuse to act so as to make housing not a commodity, but a fundamental right.
No to the essentials
As for the Legault government, it refuses to move on the essentials.
He says no to the creation of a lease register, a control of rents, the obligation to allow a pet, the actual acceleration in the construction of really affordable and out -of -market housing, etc.
He also refuses to make the complaints anonymous to the administrative court of housing to prevent landlords from discriminating against potential tenants.
Why such inaction? Because it reserves its prejudice favorable to the private market. The Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, is the increasingly embarrassing embodiment.
Contempt
His contemptuous statements towards tenants are no longer counted. This 1is July, on the program First hourshe even said this: “When you have a housing issue, it often follows from other situations”. Pardon?
Subsequently, she talked about “mental health” problems. But on which planet or in which castle does it live? This major crisis hops thousands of Quebecers. Point.
The real problem is not one of “mental health” of the tenants, but of a heartbreaking absence of truly effective public policies.
