Tenants of an unsanitary block hope that the City of Montreal, their new owner, will be able to solve the problem.

Disgusted tenants are at the end of patience in the face of mold, rats and bars that gangrene their homes hoped that the City of Montreal, which recently acquired the building, finally solves the problem.

“It’s disgusting, we are disgusted,” said Raphaël Dumais, who has lived since 2021 in a dilapidated building in the Darlington district, in Côte-des-Neige.

In each of the three small rooms in his apartment on rue Goyer, black mold spots are visible on the ceiling, noted The newspaper Saturday morning.

Bought by the city

When he signed his lease in 2017, the building belonged to the Capreit company, which presents itself as “the largest Canadian supplier of listed rental housing”, on its website. This real estate tycoon prides itself on having 45,800 doors across the country. It was not possible to speak to a company manager.

Last February, the city bought 31 buildings from the Darlington district from this company, including the one where M. Dumais houses. She then entrusted them to the Montreal City Housing Office (OMHM).

The level of unsanitary conditions in seven of these buildings was such that emergency work must be carried out to repair structures, roofs, developing waste management zones and making them conform to fire standards, in particular, lists the OMHM.

“The objective is to make the environment worthy of the people who live there,” illustrates Despina Sourias, a municipal councilor responsible for the accommodation.

Using its right of prehemution, the city has spent the plump sum of $ 104 million to make these acquisitions.

Vermin infested

Inspections have revealed that more than a quarter of the 717 units of these buildings were infested by ants, bugs, coats or even rats and mice, protests the OMHM.

The rodents even dug visible burrows around the building, showed Journal M. Dumais.

“This is an issue of historical negligence of former owners,” deplores Ms. Sourias, while OMHM ensures that the infestation rate has increased from 76 % to 30 % since last March.

While the city is delighted to have released these housing from the speculative market, making it possible to ensure their affordability, Abdelhadi Zebbar, another tenant, observes that the service to the tenant is still not to the point.

This father believes that the level of unsanitary conditions is such that it has been a “threat to public health and residents” for years.

Waste problems

Before, the repairs were done quickly, but they were sloppy to the maximum, ”nuances Mr. Dumais, who stresses that certain tenants contribute to unhealthiness.

But despite the implementation of an action plan by the OMHM and the city to improve the quality of life of the residents, Mr. Dumais is impatient in the face of waste management around his apartment block.

By the way of Journalold clothes, full strata and even a knife had been abandoned on the ground of the adjacent alley, where the tenants as well as the businesses on the transversal street have their changes.

“It is often worse than that,” said Mr. Zebbar, telling the shame he felt after recently received a friend.

According to Sam Yen, an employee of a neighboring garage, waste management in the alley would still have improved in the last months.

A dubious restaurant would have left the sector and a “new concierge does its job better”, in Mr. Zebbar’s block, he believes.