Presser held over condemned social housing
A presser/demo was held Monday to make the point that if Quebec handed over some cash, a lot of existing social housing could be renovated rather than condemned. Social housing units have been falling into disrepair at a terrible clip, meanwhile few new ones are being built.
Ephraim 09:20 on 2023-02-28 Permalink
We need a report to tell us WHY they fell into disrepair. Was it because the costs of repair were too high? More repairs were needed because it was built badly? More repairs were needed because of the clientele? Without knowing WHY this is happening, it’s just throwing money at a problem, not fixing it.
Cadichon 09:39 on 2023-02-28 Permalink
Historically, Quebec has allocated a fixed amount per unit for the maintenance of every HLM across the province. But a typical HLM in a rural area is a one or two storey wood frame building with senior tenants. In Montreal, you’ll find large HLM building with elevators and more varied tenants, including people with mental health issues. So maintenance costs in Montreal have been higher than the allocated sums for decades.
Ephraim 12:01 on 2023-02-28 Permalink
That’s known. But it has to be more complicated than that. A building doesn’t go down to being condemned so quickly. We also know that maintenance is very expensive in Montreal because they are using city workers who are unionized and highly paid. Which is how REITs make their money… having many apartments, they can afford to keep maintenance people on contract and keep maintenance costs down.
So the end result is that it may be cheaper in the long run to either consider going the way of Habitat for Humanity and building units that have a lease-to-own component so that people are invested in the maintenance of their own unit and the building or having contracts with REITs to do the maintenance or even long term contracts with REITs to actually run the property. Or even have the CDPQ set up a REIT specifically to do that with a fixed profit margin.
But I think we are better off spending the money to clearly understand the underlying problem that just throwing money at it. To tackle this from a rational standpoint, rather than making assumptions. It’s like the problem with the Commission Scolaire de Montreal and maintenance. They clearly skimped on the budget and essentially planned on waiting until the government had no choice but to rescue them. And they did. When they should have considered taking control or even setting up a minimum percentage of budget spent for maintenance and holding them accountable for not doing maintenance instead they were just handed money. And I’m willing to bet we will see them do exactly the same thing again. Because it’s too easy to RUN to the government, when clearly there is mismanagement happening.