MONTREAL — Area mayors within the combined Agglomeration are sounding the alarm over looming provincial budget cuts they worry could leave the homeless out in the cold.
“Those people who are most vulnerable will find themselves on the street and will find themselves making demands on the public health service,” said Alan DeSousa, the St-Laurent borough mayor. “Ultimately in the medium to long term, it will cost the government much more money.”
Agglomeration officials worry that when the provincial government tables its next budget in April, it will swing an ax at $30 million in annual funding for Renovation Quebec, a program designed to renovate subsidized housing. They also worry that cuts could be imminent to AccesLogis, a similar program aimed at the construction of new social housing.
“There are big buildings like this one that are not in good condition,” said Vicente Perez, the coordinator of the Little Burgundy Coalition. Perez pointed to the building where he works, which contains social housing units upstairs. There is some money put aside for renovations by the agency that manages the building, “but not enough to renovate really,” he said.
There are 30,000 homeless people on the Island of Montreal, with some 230,000 people who live under the poverty line, according to city officials. Additionally, there are 20,000 people sitting on the waiting list for subsidized housing.
“There are more and more homeless people on the streets,” said Anne Bonnefont, of the Reseau Solidarite Itinerance du Quebec, “and the profiles of homelessness is diversifying.”
In other words, there is a wider spectrum of people in Montreal who are becoming homeless.
In Little Burgundy, Perez said there are 8,000 new residential units slated to go up in the near future. Of those, 1,000 are scheduled to be social housing.
If the province pulls funding for new construction, Perez worries that condos will go up anyway, “because that’s private money. But we will not the social housing.”
This is an issue that affects more than low income residents of the city; it could drastically accelerate gentrification and alter the unique character of some of the city’s most cherished areas.
“How do we keep alive our genuine neighbourhoods that are so important to our distinctive character and quality of life?” asked Dinu Bumbaru, spokesperson for Heritage Montreal. “Montreal is a city of neighbourhoods. And these programs are very important.”
The current funding for the two programs runs out at the end of March.
Comments