Open letter from Rémi Pelletier, director of the Haut-Saint-Laurent CDCin collaboration with Valérie Taillefer from ADDS Huntingdon, Joanie Gravel from Habitations des Tisserandes and Manon Leduc from the Groupe de Ressources Techniques du Sud-Ouest, regarding the remarks of the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, in Behind the scenes of power, March 26, 2023.
Really !?! Between the lines we read: the Municipal Housing Offices are not proactive enough, the Technical Resource Groups are sitting on their steaks and the community and municipal partners are not doing enough.
What arrogance! In the last fifteen years of inefficiency, as Ms. Duranceau mentions, the ecosystem has never had the resources required to carry out the projects. True that the private sector has succeeded, but it is to fill their pockets. Hence the crisis we are experiencing.
Moreover, in terms of efficiency and rigor, what about your follow-up to our recommendations, which date from 2022? Four months have passed without a response from you. We invite you to prove yourself before criticizing our efforts and rigor.
The supposedly less rigorous ecosystem is rather more so in that it cares that your programs actually serve the public interest. Which has not been the case in recent years.
As Mr. Brousseau-Pouliot reports in La Presse: “In the 2000s, AccèsLogis initially covered 50% of the construction costs of social housing. The city (15%) and the mortgage on future rents (35%) covered the rest”.
Now, the Quebec subsidy only covers 32% of the actual construction costs. Result: there is a lack of money to complete the financing, and the projects do not start (yes, the problem is as stupid as that). The fault does not lie with the ecosystem, it lies with the budget cuts which impose changes of beacons. The fault lies with a system that favors disguised subsidies to private promoters. (PHAQ and PSL) Indeed, the famous Rent Supplement Program sends a message to real estate developers: “Raise the rents as you wish, our subsidies will compensate”.
On the contrary, the Accès-Logis programs and community initiatives are initiatives that ensure that all the subsidies granted will never be used to enrich someone.
Finally, the housing crisis will not be resolved in the next seven years. Think again! Construction costs and inflation continue to affect rents, which are already overpriced. To hope seven years before the rise in wages of the least well paid catches up with these price increases is to dream in color.
It will take major concrete actions for there to be hope in this direction. Ms. Duranceau, please stop blaming others and get what is needed from the Treasury Board.
By Rémi Pelletier, Valérie Taillefer, Joanie Gravel and Manon Leduc.
