Montreal activists call for more social housing on old Blue Bonnets Raceway site

To the naked eye, the old site of the Blue Bonnets Raceway — on the west side of the Décarie Expressway near the Orange Julep — is just a pile of rubble.

But Claire Abraham, an organizer with Montreal community group Project Genesis, sees potential. 

She's pushing the City to build 2,500 social housing units on the site, which is slated for residential development.

The plan is to build between 5,000 and 8,000 housing units, some of which have been earmarked for low income families.

"There's so much potential to create a development that's green, that's innovative and that's truly inclusive," said Abraham.

The former Blue Bonnets site is about the size of about 43 football fields, or 440,000 square-metres.

Sue Montgomery, mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce​, told CBC that there is already a plan in place to devote a portion of units to social housing.

But Abraham feels that's not enough.

"We're not satisfied with what the government has committed to now," she said.

"We really see it has a huge opportunity and one of the last opportunities in the central neighbourhoods of Montreal to build a development that actually responds to people who need it the most."

According to numbers from Project Genesis, 35 per cent of residents in Côte-des-Neiges​ live below the poverty line, and about 2,500 households in the neighbourhood are on the waiting list for social housing.

Project Genesis plans to present a petition pushing for more social housing spots on the Blue Bonnets site to the borough council on Monday.

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In April, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante touted the site's potential for housing opportunities, but made no commitments to increasing the amount of social housing there.

"There could be condos," she told CBC News. "There could be little houses as well."

During her election campaign in October 2017, Plante promised to construct 12,000 social housing units over the course of her term as mayor.

The raceway, which was later named the Hippodrome de Montréal, closed in October 2009.

It sat abandoned until April of this year, when demolition of the race track's clubhouse, stands, stables, garages and other structures finally began.

With files from CBC's Navneet Pall