The PSL, or Programme de supplément au loyer, allows homeless and at-risk renters in Quebec to access housing without paying more than 25 per cent of their income on rent. But new reporting finds that 20 per cent of provincially funded rent subsidies are going unused. 

The program largely operates through private housing stock. As such, it’s facing the same challenges that renters are in a hot housing market. 

“We’re looking at apartments that are, minimum, $1,000 a month – apartments that are not renovated, that need repairs,” says Laetitia Grenier, the Housing Sector Coordinator at Dans La Rue. Dans La Rue, which works with at-risk youth, is one of the community organizations assigned PSL slots by the Quebec government.

Grenier says finding landlords who will take their clients is also getting harder. Although Dans La Rue is there to support landlords as well as tenants in the PSL process, it’s not easy to get that message across when competing against open houses full of prospective renters.

At the same time, small landlords themselves are being bought out by corporations whose primary interest is their bottom line. Georges Ohana, Director of Homeless Prevention & Research for the Old Brewery Mission, says they and their clients are feeling the squeeze.

“I’m having a lot of difficulty today trying to believe that PSLs are going to survive when the housing stock that I’m finding is just – sorry for the term, but it’s just subhuman.”

As a result, his team has had to make some tough calls.

“Is it better: a shelter, the street, or housing? How can we in 2023 have those questions asked?”

Ohana began working on the development of the Mission’s own housing projects in 2006. He’s seen a lot of policy change over the years, and he’s not optimistic about the province’s new direction.

With the end of the AccèsLogis program and the proposed Bill 31, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government has been looking to get out of the business of building and administering social housing. Instead, Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau recently floated new funding streams to help cooperatives and community organizations to buy existing buildings. This would allow them to take housing out of the private market and keep rents more affordable.

To those on the ground, Duranceau's proposal isn't unwelcome — but it isn't enough, Grenier says.

“To put it all onto community organizations, I think it’s a big mistake,” says Grenier. “We need the funds, but we also need help.”

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