Tenants in the West Island are being called on to fill out a survey about their experiences.
Very little data has been collected in the past about renters. Until a year ago, the area did not have a housing committee.
The recently founded West Island Tenants Action Committee thinks that the lack of resources for tenants could be caused by “a common misconception that the West Island is full of homeowners, that there simply aren’t tenants,” community organizer Lily Martin said.
According to the housing committee, 20 per cent of housing units in the West Island are rentals. Forty per cent of those households live in unaffordable housing, meaning they pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.
Moreover, “the West Island makes up 12 per cent of the entire population of Montreal, but we have only four per cent of its social housing,” Martin said.
Housing activists say that tenants in wealthier areas often become invisible, even though they can face additional challenges.
“You obviously need to have a way higher income to be able to afford living in those neighbourhoods,” FRAPRU co-ordinator Catherine Lussier said. “Especially when there is no easy access to public transportation or other services.”
The survey aims to gather more detailed demographic information, as well as obtain a record of the challenges faced by tenants, such as harassment from landlords or bug infestations.
Before this committee was created, it was neighbouring housing groups that addressed West Islanders’ concerns.
Lussier says the problems FRAPRU was contacted for most often concerned “sanitation issues, but primarily for high rent increases.”
Advocates are hoping to collect information from people who do not know about the services they offer, or who do not use them. They want to paint a full picture of the needs and challenges of tenants in the area. To that end, the survey will be open for responses for three months, until mid-October.