Valérie Plante welcomes social housing deal, but pandemic has heightened the demand
'The needs here are huge,' Montreal mayor says of demands for an affordable place to live
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante welcomed a deal between Quebec and Ottawa to finance social housing, with the city facing ever more glaring needs as it prepares for winter during the pandemic.
Plante said the number of homeless has jumped, by roughly double, to 6,000 in the past six months. Overall, she said, 150,000 households are waiting for adequate and affordable housing.
A small homeless camp remains in the shadow of downtown, on a strip of green space alongside Notre-Dame Street East.
"The needs here are huge," Plante said at a news conference Friday, which was originally called to put pressure on the federal and provincial government to finally come to an agreement.
She was joined in Montreal by Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume and Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin.
Late Thursday, only hours before the news conference, the two sides announced a tentative deal had been reached over control of $1.4 billion in social housing funding for the province.
Even if the deal is ratified, though, Plante said it usually takes five years for a project to come to fruition. Affordable housing was a centrepiece of her election plaform in 2017.
But she said her administration has been hampered by a lack of funding from other levels of government.
"This agreement is good news, so we can tell our different partners: ok, you can come up with projects," she said.
Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume said he's anxious to move forward with more projects that will benefit "vulnerable clienteles such as the homeless, young people leaving youth protection services and people living with a disability."