A coalition of community groups is ramping up pressure on the Montreal and Quebec governments to follow through on a plan for social housing in the former Blue Bonnet Hippodrome racetrack site, which has been closed for more than a decade.
The groups say they’re becoming impatient as the need for social housing in the city becomes more urgent.
“For more than 30 years there’ve been terrible problems in Côte-des-Neiges that need to be responded to,” Darby MacDonald, a community organizer at Project Genesis, one of the groups, told protesters Tuesday. “There are 4,235 families in Côte-des-Neiges who are paying 80 per cent or more of their income towards their rent.”
Last fall, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante pledged to build 7,500 housing units around the hippodrome site including at least 2,000 for social housing.
It’s not the first time promises were made to build such units on the site.
In 2013 former mayor Gérald Tremblay promised to include them as part of development of the site.
Given that nothing has happened yet, community groups in the area call attention to the urgent need highlighted after the annual July 1st moving day this year.
“A few days after the first of July there are still nearly 120 tenants who are still seeking an apartment in Montreal,” noted Catherine Lussier, community worker at the housing advocacy organization, Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU).
For weeks the Plante administration has blamed both the provincial and federal government for failing to fund such projects.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson pointed out that the city is in talks with the province, and they intend to keep their commitment for the hippodrome to build “a complete neighbourhood for thousands of Montreal families, including a significant proportion of affordable, social and family housing.”
A week ago the province announced plans to build 3,000 affordable and social housing over three years.
“Which, for us doesn’t answer at all the needs of the tenants that are seeking better apartments,” said Lussier of the plan.
She and other housing advocates say they hope governments are listening.
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