Abandoned social housing has to be demolished
This Gazette piece on an abandoned social housing building on Walkley in NDG tells us:
1. The building was abandoned in 2013
2. The city has no funds to fix it or replace it
3. Quebec has not offered any funding
4. Ensemble says this is bad, but has no suggestions what to do
Typically, nobody asks the Ensemble guy how he would go about getting funding for this project. There’s no indication that Ensemble could magically get Quebec to open its wallet for poor people in Montreal’s west end if Projet can’t.
Nicholas 20:47 on 2024-08-06 Permalink
Has the city used up its $25+ million and growing affordable/social housing fund yet? The one it built up with proffers from developers who wanted to pay into the fund rather than include affordable units in their projects? Last I heard it was just sitting in a bank account (or, probably, being used to offset some other priority so as to keep the debt from looking higher).
Kate 08:42 on 2024-08-07 Permalink
I don’t imagine so, but there may be difficulties deciding which project should benefit in which borough.
Ephraim 10:29 on 2024-08-07 Permalink
Stupid suggestion…. you borrow the money to have someone fix it, figure out the costs per square metre and sell it on long term lease (25 years) as lease-to-own. If they sell anytime before the 25 years are up, they get to keep a percent tied to the total number of years lived there. So over 5 years is 20%, 6 years is 24% etc. but of the principal, not the interest. Which is a capital gain to them. And the city buys it back to do this again for another family. If they manage the full 25 years, they own it.