Quebec tenant advocates warn that the rising cost of rent is making it harder for people to find an affordable place to live.
During the 10th annual tenants day in Montreal Sunday afternoon, dozens of people gathered outside Verdun metro station to demand the provincial government put an end to the current housing crisis.
“It’s very difficult to find something you can afford, where you would have enough room to actually live properly,” said demonstrator Marie-Frederique St-Onge.
St-Onge is a single-mother who recently went through the process of finding a place to rent for her and her 9-year-old son Logan.
“The search process was very long,” she told Global News. “You can show up to an apartment and see a line-up of maybe 20 people outside waiting to visit the same apartment.”
Olivia Dumas a community organizer for the Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenant Associations of Quebec (RCLALQ) said the apartment search is not becoming any easier because the price of rent “just keeps going up.”
“We’ve seen the increases that have been sometimes doubling from one year to the next,” she said.
According to the website rentals.ca the current average one bedroom apartment in Montreal is $1,500. An increase of 5.41 per cent from the previous year.
Montreal isn’t the only region in Quebec affected by the housing crisis. Yves Fortin told Global News with inflation, it’s becoming harder to afford his apartment in Sorel, Quebec.
“The gas, the food, clothes, clothes. everything is very expensive for me,” said Fortin.
RCLALQ is calling on the provincial government to stop excessive rent hikes by creating a province-wide rent registry. They claim this form of accountability could address the crisis head on.
“It would tell us what people are paying and when tenants are signing a new lease. They’ll be able to see what previous tenants were paying.” Dumas added, “Because what we’ve been seeing is between tenants — through fraudulent measures — landlords are increasing rents substantially.”
The coalition would like housing to be one of the main issues in the provincial election this fall. Dumas wants to remind politicians and landlords that housing is an essential right that people should not have to fight for.
Quebec’s Housing Minister Andrée Laforest did not reply to our interview request by deadline.