Moving day in Montreal is coming — and housing advocates are worried
City says measures are in place to help renters
With moving day in Montreal still two months away, housing advocacy groups say they are already overwhelmed by requests for help.
One organization attributes the surge in demand to this year's recommended rent increase by Quebec's housing tribunal, the highest in 30 years, coupled with a persistently low vacancy rate.
"Some tenants have the feeling that they are at the limit of what they can pay now already with their rent but they don't have any solution because if they quit what they have right now, they're not going to find something that's necessarily cheaper," said Catherine Lussier, co-ordinator for Le Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU).
Despina Sourias, the city's executive committee member in charge of housing, said local organizations are lacking some resources to meet the demand, but Montreal is offering assistance. The city is allocating $1.5 million over three years to help 22 local housing organizations.
Residents can also call 211 or 311 for housing help, and the municipal housing office provides an online platform to help renters find affordable apartments. Montreal's rent registry is also available to help identify average rents by neighbourhood, Montreal says in a news release Thursday.
Sourias said July 1 is increasingly stressful for Montrealers struggling to find affordable housing, but the city has doubled its support budget since 2019 and continues to work with the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal (OMHM) to provide guidance and resources.
She said the city is committed to raising awareness, offering financial aid and mobilizing partners to ensure no one is left behind.
Sourias said these measures help, "but let's be honest, we all have to work together to make the situation better."
Lussier described the city's efforts as a temporary fix that fails to address the real needs tenants have. Those needs include rent control and tougher eviction rules.
"If we don't cover both of these elements, one is just going to be worse than the other one," she said. "I think there are other measures the Quebec government has to put in place."
And, she added, the government needs to act quickly to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
Quebec Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau has stated that rent supplements are available for those in need, but the eligibility requirements exclude many — especially those evicted for non-payment.
Housing came up during the recent federal election. Since winning, Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he'd follow through on creating a new housing entity and provide $25 billion in financing to private developers with a goal of building "twice as many homes per year" using Canadian products, including lumber.
Carney's plan sets the goal of building nearly 500,000 new homes annually across Canada.
On a local level, since the beginning of 2025, the city's 19 boroughs have set a goal to approve housing projects that don't require special permits within 120 days.
It's still early, but the city says so far, the majority of permit approvals are still taking longer than they'd like. At the same time, the city has discovered that 77 per cent of projects don't need special permits.
Ensemble Montréal, the Official Opposition at city hall, says there's still too much red tape in the permitting process, but Mayor Valérie Plante says the measures are starting to deliver results.
Written by Isaac Olson, with files from Gabriel Guindi