Montreal revamps social housing bylaw, aims to get more developers on board
Bylaw has faced questions about its effectiveness since taking effect nearly 3 years ago
In 2021, a bylaw took effect with the goal of forcing Montreal developers to include social, family and affordable housing in their projects.
Nearly three years later, and with many questions swirling about the effectiveness of that bylaw, the city is revamping its rules and being more lenient with developers.
Benoit Dorais, the vice-president of Montreal's executive committee who is in charge of the housing file, said the bylaw, which is called the Règlement pour une métropole mixte (RMM), is an effective tool and is "here to stay."
But he said it needed to be tweaked due to changes in the economic context in the last several years.
He pointed to the cost of land, rising interest rates and the end of government programs like Accès Logis that have made it more more challenging for promoters to contribute to social and affordable housing, even if they wanted to. Dorais said promoters need to be given more incentives.
Currently, the bylaw aims to encourage developers to include social, family and, in some places, affordable housing units, in any new projects larger than 4,843 square feet.
If they don't, they must pay a fine or hand over land, buildings or individual units for the city to turn into affordable or social housing.
On Monday, Dorais said the bylaw has so far resulted in 206 agreements between the city and promoters, resulting in a total of 660 social housing units that are either completed or in progress — a poor showing, according to the city's opposition party Ensemble Montréal.
Dorais said those agreements have also netted $38.7 million for the city's social and affordable housing funds.
Here's a breakdown of the key changes to the bylaw, which are expected to take effect as of Monday:
- The amount of money given to promoters in exchange for land will go up.
- The financial contribution of promoters to social and affordable housing funds will not go up before 2026, as opposed to going up as of 2024.
- Smaller projects with a maximum of 20 units will be exempt from the bylaw temporarily.
- The contribution to the affordable housing fund is scrapped for projects that have between 20 and 150 units.
The city gave examples of the different types of amounts promoters will get in exchange for land, depending on the neighbourhood.
With the current bylaw, the city said it would pay about $5.8 million for a piece of land in Griffintown. With the changes that are coming, the city would instead fork over $8.4 million. City officials stressed that, in this example, the new amount would still be under market value, though the hope is it would be an extra incentive for promoters.
"The changes that we are making to the RMM show that the city is flexible," said Dorais. "It also shows that we are listening to our partners."
He said giving promoters a break should lead to more construction.
"It's simple. There needs to be more construction, and it needs to go faster," he said.
Bylaw must be suspended, opposition says
Julien Hénault-Ratelle, Ensemble Montréal's housing critic, said the bylaw put in place by Valérie Plante's administration has missed the mark.
"The only reform that's acceptable at this moment is a suspension, pure and simple, of this bylaw," he said.
"Zero affordable homes have been built and there's only one social housing project and the funds accumulated are not even enough to get a project off the ground."
He says promoters are creating projects outside Montreal because of the bylaw — something Dorais disputed during his news conference.
Hénault-Ratelle says the changes announced Thursday will have, at best, a minor effect on the housing crisis, especially since many of the changes announced are temporary.
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