{"id":172165,"date":"2023-07-28T17:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T21:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=172165"},"modified":"2023-08-28T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T20:02:58","slug":"rent-subsidies-going-unused-amid-quebecs-housing-crisis-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/rent-subsidies-going-unused-amid-quebecs-housing-crisis-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Rent subsidies going unused amid Quebec’s housing crisis: reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PSL, or <\/span>Programme de suppl\u00e9ment au loyer<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i> allows homeless and at-risk renters in Quebec to access housing without paying more than 25 per cent of their income on rent. But <\/span>new reporting<\/span><\/a> finds that 20 per cent of provincially funded rent subsidies are going unused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The program largely operates through private housing stock. As such, it\u2019s facing the same challenges that renters are in a hot housing market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at apartments that are, minimum, $1,000 a month \u2013 apartments that are not renovated, that need repairs,\u201d says Laetitia Grenier, the Housing Sector Coordinator at Dans La Rue. <\/span>Dans La Rue<\/span><\/a>, which works with at-risk youth, is one of the community organizations assigned PSL slots by the Quebec government.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s not easy to get that message across when competing against open houses full of prospective renters.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/span>Old Brewery Mission<\/span><\/a>, says they and their clients are feeling the squeeze.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having a lot of difficulty today trying to believe that PSLs are going to survive when the housing stock that I\u2019m finding is just \u2013 sorry for the term, but it\u2019s just subhuman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, his team has had to make some tough calls.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs it better: a shelter, the street, or housing? How can we in 2023 have those questions asked?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ohana began working on the development of the Mission\u2019s own housing projects in 2006. He\u2019s seen a lot of policy change over the years, and he\u2019s not optimistic about the province\u2019s new direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the end of the Acc\u00e8sLogis program<\/a> and the proposed Bill 31<\/a>, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government has been looking to get out of the business of building and administering social housing. Instead, <\/span>Housing Minister France-\u00c9laine 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

To those on the ground, Duranceau's proposal isn't unwelcome \u2014 but it isn't enough, Grenier says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo put it all onto community organizations, I think it\u2019s a big mistake,\u201d says Grenier. \u201cWe need the funds, but we also need help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The PSL, or Programme de suppl\u00e9ment 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.\u00a0 The program largely operates through private housing stock. As…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":172185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21655,225],"tags":[12770,29163,2335,29164,24659],"radio":[28325],"origine":[274,1145,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172165"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175685,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172165\/revisions\/175685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172165"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=172165"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=172165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}