Promised Park Ex social housing stands empty
The Plaza Hutchison building that stands opposite Parc metro station was bought by the city four years ago, with a promise to convert it into 40 new social housing units. But since then, nothing, and this piece says the building is starting to fall apart.
At the time the city’s intervention was considered a coup. But it only came after the businesses and places of worship mentioned in the piece, but also many community groups, had been turfed out by a developer. So not only did the neighbourhood lose many affordable commercial spaces, it failed to gain anything back. Borough mayor says other levels of government have not stepped up to contribute funding.
Ian 18:16 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
Classic failure of bureaucracy.
That said, given how many new developments there are trying to get out of including social housing in their builds, why not allow them to fund the existing backlog of social housing conversions? There are TONS of places the city owns that can’t be used because they’re not up to code. It could be an easy win/win.
Failing that, couldn’t they at least let the community groups back in to use the space? It might even help calm down the craziness in the park across the street, which is turning into a pretty wild freezone at night.
DeWolf 18:42 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
The city has collected $26 million from developers who opted to pay a fee instead of including social housing. (I could be a bit wrong on the number but I’m pretty sure it’s right.) That’s not nothing and I wonder why the city is just sitting on it. It’s possible they are waiting to use it to buy more land, but they could also earmark it to get projects like this off the ground. It would be enough for Plaza Hutchison and maybe even one or two other small developments.
Of course there might be some bureaucratic issue that prevents the city from directly financing housing. Normally they need an NGO or some para-public organization like the OMHM to get funding and put together a proposal before they give them the property for free.
Ian 18:50 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
They also have lots of social housing that has fallen into disrepair and needs to be renovated before it can be used again – this would help lessen that pressure, too. There are lots of places the money could go, with no new purchases of property necessary.
Kate 19:55 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
What do we think the problem is?
I have a hunch it’s bureaucratic perfectionism and mission creep. Yes, any new offerings need to be up to code, but bureaucracy pushes things past a useful event horizon.
I’ve cited it before, but when they were renovating the swimming pool in Sir George Etienne Cartier Park in St‑Henri, it started with necessary remedial work on the pool, then it moved to designing a new pavilion, not just with changing rooms and lockers, but meeting rooms for the community and other facilities, and the whole process was expected to take a long time, and put the pool out of use for at least one and possibly more summers.
I haven’t had any reason to pass by there lately, and Streetview’s images around the park stop in 2020 so I don’t know whether it was ever completed and put into use.
Something similar happened around the Théâtre de Verdure in Lafontaine Park. Plans for its renovation got more and more complicated and potentially costly until someone put a stop to it. Eventually it was rebuilt, because the original structure really was crumbling, but omitted some of the more high‑tech features that had been proposed.
Thing about bureaucratic perfectionism is that every step of the way has its justifications and champions. In the case of Plaza Hutchison, what we need is 40 units of various capacities, heated and ventilated, and provided with functional bathrooms and kitchens. We don’t need them to be an architect’s dream project. They don’t all have to be one hundred percent accessible to the disabled (some should be, of course). There doesn’t have to be a high‑tech gym or meeting rooms. People need shelter. They need a place to eat and sleep and hang out. But it can never be allowed to be that simple.
Joey 20:58 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
Seems pretty clear that the city was willing to spend the initial six million bucks or so to acquire the property but were expecting either the federal or provincial governments (or both) to come through with the rest. That hasn’t happened so there hasn’t been any progress. We can fault the city for the strategy, but I don’t think we can realistically expect them to come up with the rest, given how tight the city’s fiscal situation is.
Ephraim 21:03 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
And when I say that the city shouldn’t be in this business, everyone thinks I’m crazy. There are enough REITs, Who have entire teams to manage buildings, plumbers on call, electricians they can call, exterminators on contract that can manage buildings and we could work out a profit margin for them to manage buildings. They have no interest in buildings falling into disrepair, like the city has repeatedly done. Just let them do what they do profitably, but with social housing. The way they do this in some other places, you subsidize the monthly rent, but let the professionals manage what they are already professionally doing.
Ian 17:36 on 2024-07-15 Permalink
All this aside, it seems weird that it isn’t being used as a community centre for now since it was already serving that precise purpose more or less.
Kate 20:39 on 2024-07-15 Permalink
They may have turned off the water and made other changes that render the premises unusable, if they were intending to gut and remodel.
Joey 12:11 on 2024-07-16 Permalink
I imagine most community orgs wouldn’t be interested in all the hassle that comes with moving if the new space isn’t permanent or even long term – presumably the city is not in a position to offer long leases and would want to be able to hand things over to a developer ASAP once there’s a funding commitment from another level of government. Realistically these things take time and nobody would be tossed out on a dime, but the appeal would be limited.
Ian 17:02 on 2024-07-16 Permalink
Fair enough; once burned, twice shy.