Montreal families who have been mobilizing for ten years for a social housing project in the former Chinese hospital are still waiting even though the City acquired the land three years ago.
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For Soufia Khmarou, there is no other choice to find a large home for her family.
“I’ve been looking for years. I knocked on all the doors, nothing moves. And there I received an eviction notice from my landlord,” sighs the mother of three children, including an 11-year-old girl in a wheelchair.
For a decade, the Villeray Tenants Association has been supporting Ms. Khmarou and other residents of the neighborhood to transform the former Chinese hospital into social housing.
Abandoned for more than 20 years, it was one of the few lots in the neighborhood that might accommodate such a project.
No money
In 2014, the group considered buying the building from the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’île-de-Montréal, which did not work out.
Then, in 2019, the City of Montreal got its hands on the building for $4 million in the hope that the project would finally unblock.
But three years later, more than sixty aspiring Villeray tenants are still waiting for a roof.
The City entrusted the Romel organization with the mandate to develop 38 units under the AccèsLogis program, which ended this year.
“There is no money”, drops the general manager of Romel, Mazen Houdeib.
His organization has applied for the new Quebec Affordable Housing Program (PHAQ). Only eight projects were selected in Montreal. Not that of the former Chinese hospital.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Citizens of Villeray have been mobilizing for 10 years for the former Chinese hospital to become social housing.
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The aspiring tenants accuse Romel of turning away from them by teaming up with a Parc-Extension organization to obtain financing.
“Everything was tied up and we were kicked out,” protested the president of the Villeray Tenants’ Association, Wassyla Hadjabi.
She fears that following all this time, the project will slip through the fingers of the Villeray families who have mobilized to make it happen.
“Our objective remains the same, it is to develop the site to meet the needs of the district”, assures Mr. Houdeib.
Underfunding
The Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU) blames the “chronic underfunding” of Quebec.
“In Montreal, there are several lots that have been acquired that are just waiting for sufficient funds to transform them. This is unacceptable in a context of housing crisis, “insists the head of Montreal files at FRAPRU, Catherine Lussier.
In all, 41 projects totaling 1,723 units were selected under the PHAQ across the province, a clearly insufficient number, according to her.