‘Progress is being made’: Montreal continues to combat unsanitary housing

MONTREAL – The City of Montreal has released a report on its action plan to combat unsanitary housing.

Since 2014, over 2,000 units in 144 buildings have been thoroughly inspected with the city’s new equipment, including thermal cameras and mold and humidity detectors.

The overall goal of the program is to improve living conditions for tenants by having building owners bear the responsibility for sanitation problems.

This includes everything from pests and mold to the structural integrity of the building.

“Our first objective is not to go and impose fines,” said Russell Copeman, the city councillor in charge of the operation.

“The objective is to improve the quality of the housing stock in question.”

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Bad housing conditions can impact the health and safety of Montreal’s residents, as well as damage a community’s reputation if there are many violations within a neighbourhood, said Copeman.

The action plan follows five main principles:

1. Require owners to make corrective measures.
2. Encourage owners to make improvements to their dwelling units.
3. Take action against delinquent owners.
4. Support tenants.
5. Avoid stigmatization.

The city said it has spent the last year working on its relationship with building owners, implementing a “more detailed and rigorous” approach to solving tenants’ problems.

However, it acknowledged that not all landlords take action immediately, sometimes waiting for a court order before fixing issues with their building.

“Most often, when we get to the legal recourse, it’s something to be avoided,” Copeman said.

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Approximately 20 per cent of files remain open because of this, but the city said it hopes to work closely with building owners to avoid it entirely.

“It is much better for us, for tenants, and in the longer-term, for owners, if we can all work together using the programs and expertise of the City of Montreal to improve housing stock,” said Copeman.

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For owners to better understand the situation of their properties, the city is handing them a non-conformity checklist, which delineates all of the issues brought up during inspection.

The inspector assigned to each file will have a meeting with the landlord to plan the work that must be done and will stay on to help until everything is resolved.

“We’ve established an action plan with the aid of equipment and expertise to get to the heart of the problem and not just put a coat of paint over some surface mold,” said Copeman.

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