{"id":6262,"date":"2014-11-11T16:20:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T21:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/montreal-gazette-hard-times-renters-cote-des-neiges-2\/"},"modified":"2021-01-01T12:06:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T17:06:57","slug":"montreal-gazette-hard-times-renters-cote-des-neiges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/montreal-gazette-hard-times-renters-cote-des-neiges\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard times for renters in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-kjej4vq3-e7fd4d90ebb8408b916fe74d3379a68b\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-kjej4vq3-e7fd4d90ebb8408b916fe74d3379a68b{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-kjej4vq3-e7fd4d90ebb8408b916fe74d3379a68b .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-kjej4vq3-e7fd4d90ebb8408b916fe74d3379a68b .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-kjej4vq3-e7fd4d90ebb8408b916fe74d3379a68b av-special-heading-h5 blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first '><h5 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >Montreal Gazette &#8211; November 11, 2014<\/h5><div class='av-subheading av-subheading_below'><p>(en anglais)<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-kja9h5df-64f46e29dd09f4f10f890b31ce14c944 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p><a href=\"http:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/local-news\/hard-times-for-renters-in-cote-des-neiges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6268 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-297x300.jpg\" alt=\"Montreal Gazette - Hard times for tenants in CDN\" width=\"297\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-297x300.jpg 297w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-600x604.jpg 600w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-699x705.jpg 699w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2-450x453.jpg 450w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-hard-times2.jpg 812w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Marina can\u2019t sleep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She is two months behind on her rent, her phone has been cut off for nonpayment, and she is behind on her electricity bill by six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sixty-five years old, single and childless, Marina has not been able to find work for several years now. Originally from the Philippines,\u00a0Marina worked as a nanny when she first came to Montreal as a young woman. Eventually, she managed to start a small business as a dressmaker. She\u00a0cobbled together a decent living with that and\u00a0working as a school lunch monitor and a caretaker for the elderly at a hospital\u00a0in the evenings. But in the past decade, all of that work has dried up.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6400\" style=\"width: 505px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6400\" class=\"wp-image-6400 size-portfolio\" src=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-gazette-montreal-que-november-8-2014-a-balcony-with-a-for-ren-495x400.jpg\" alt=\"MONTREAL, QUE.: NOVEMBER 8, 2014 -- A balcony with a For Rent sign on an apartment building on Barclay avenue in the borough of C\u00f4te-des-Neiges in Montreal on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Rent prices in the borough are higher than elsewhere in Montreal and the average income of tenants is lower. (Dario Ayala \/ Montreal Gazette)\" width=\"495\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-gazette-montreal-que-november-8-2014-a-balcony-with-a-for-ren-495x400.jpg 495w, https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-gazette-montreal-que-november-8-2014-a-balcony-with-a-for-ren-845x684.jpg 845w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MONTREAL, QUE.: NOVEMBER 8, 2014 &#8212; A balcony with a For Rent sign on an apartment building on Barclay avenue in the borough of C\u00f4te-des-Neiges in Montreal on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Rent prices in the borough are higher than elsewhere in Montreal and the average income of tenants is lower. (Dario Ayala \/ Montreal Gazette)<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt\u2019s coming down, down, down, my situation,\u201d says Marina, who asked the Montreal Gazette not to print her real name as she\u00a0fears she would be evicted\u00a0if her\u00a0landlord realizes just how hopeless her financial situation is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0The rent on\u00a0her tiny 3\u00bd in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges is\u00a0$715 a month. Her income is $868 per month ($573 in welfare, $215 from her Quebec Pension Plan and $80 in shelter allowance) which means she devotes\u00a082 per cent of her monthly income to keeping a roof over her head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">She eats one or two meals a day at MultiCaf, a community cafeteria and food bank.\u00a0For dinner, Marina generally hopes for an invitation from one of her many \u201cbig-hearted\u201d friends, some of whom she has helped in the past when her own situation was less dire.\u00a0She borrows money from friends, too, but always pays them back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Even with the free food and the loans, Marina\u2019s financial situation is simply untenable. She clings to hope that she will soon\u00a0get a coveted spot in an HLM, subsidized housing in which tenants are charged\u00a025 per cent of their income toward rent. For six years, she has been on the waiting list, which is 2,558 names long in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges alone. She got to 17th from the top two years ago, but the list is operated on a points system based on need, and others in even more dire need keep leapfrogging over her. Now she\u2019s number 58.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The saddest thing about Marina\u2019s story is that it is so shockingly common, in Montreal\u00a0in general, but in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges in particular.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Most people rent rather than own their dwellings in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges; almost 80 per cent of the households\u00a0are rentals. There are 5,060 households in which\u00a0the tenants devote more than\u00a080 per cent of their household income to rent. That is 15 per cent of tenant households\u00a0in that neighbourhood, compared with\u00a011 per cent in the city of Montreal as a whole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Last week, the housing group FRAPRU released new statistics on the rental housing crisis in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges. The group released its alarm-raising \u201cDossier Noir\u201d report on the rental housing situation across the province in September based on\u00a0data from the National Household Survey for 2011. But FRAPRU\u00a0asked\u00a0Statistics Canada for more detailed data on some of the hardest hit areas, and is now doing a Quebec-wide tour to highlight these findings as they come in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The scale and gravity of the rental housing situation in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges \u201csurpasses by a wide margin the already difficult conditions seen across the city of Montreal,\u201d says Fran\u00e7ois Saillant, coordinator at FRAPRU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation,\u00a0tenants\u00a0who pay more than 30 per cent of their income toward rent will be forced to cut in other basic areas such as food, clothing and school supplies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In C\u00f4te-des-Neiges, 46 per cent of tenants are in that position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Higher than average rents combined with lower than average tenant incomes are what makes C\u00f4te-des-Neiges Quebec\u2019s capital of misery for tenants.\u00a0The median household income in 2011 was $29,855 in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges, compared with $32,629 in Montreal as a whole. Median\u00a0rent was $716\u00a0in this neighbourhood\u00a0in 2011, and\u00a0$684 in the city as a whole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">So if things are so bad for tenants in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges, why don\u2019t they just move to a neighbourhood where rent is cheaper?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lots of reasons, says Chris Schultz, community organizer with Project Genesis, a housing advocacy group in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">First, moving is expensive. Second, people with very low incomes need\u00a0to rely on neighbours and friends, as well as services like MultiCaf and Project Genesis to get by. Third, landlords in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges have offered rental housing to generations of immigrants, so they may be less likely to discriminate or require credit checks\u00a0than those in other parts of the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">For Marina, it\u2019s also a sense of belonging to the place she has called home for over 30 years.\u00a0Her brown eyes fill with tears when\u00a0she speaks about the difficulties of those early days, when she had trouble with her employers, knew no one in Montreal, and barely spoke French. But she has built a community now, by helping others when she can and volunteering for community groups like\u00a0Project Genesis. She desperately needs help now, and she is getting some in this neighbourhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Schwartz says for people like Marina, the only real solution\u00a0is to build more social housing in C\u00f4te-des-Neiges. That\u2019s why housing groups have advocated for years for social housing to be built on the old Blue Bonnets racetrack site. Mayor Denis Coderre confirmed recently that a housing development with some social housing will go ahead on that site, but housing advocates want a firm commitment for\u00a02,500 units.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThere is nowhere else. It is pretty much the last large stretch of undeveloped land in the core of Montreal, and it\u2019s near transit and it is publicly owned,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cOnce this site goes, that\u2019s it. Where else can you put all these people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><strong>Michelle Lalonde<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-1111-Gazette-Hard-times-for-renters-in-CDN.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Montreal Gazette &#8211; November 11, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[161,189,249,295],"class_list":["post-6262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dans-les-medias","tag-droit-au-logement","tag-logement-social","tag-logements-sociaux-sur-blue-bonnets","tag-nouveaux-logements-sociaux"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-03 23:12:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6262"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16903,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions\/16903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genese.qc.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}