In July 2025, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) agreed to a project proposal that permits cohabitation in social housing, allowing unhoused individuals to live with a roommate. However, as of January 2026, this proposal has not yet been implemented.
In response, Québec Solidaire called out the CAQ on Jan. 18 for its inaction on the issue. They cited the CAQ’s inefficiency in fulfilling its commitments to provide housing solutions to counter the shelter crisis.
The city’s homeless shelters are increasingly overoccupied, with many unhoused individuals turning to emergency rooms for shelter. In a written statement to The Tribune, Jayne Malenfant, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, explained how the government could implement homelessness prevention to offset the number of people in need of housing.
“The proposed project would have been a start but it would have just treated the symptoms of the housing crisis rather than the root causes,” Malenfant said. “The provincial and municipal governments have to start considering and implementing rights-based policies that see a home as a right, and not something that people can be pushed out of for the profit of landlords or rental companies.”
The homelessness crisis has worsened with rising costs of living, increasing rent prices, and insufficient funding for community groups. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the average rent for two-bedroom apartments in the metropolitan area increased by 7.7 per cent, making it harder for residents to find affordable housing.
Eza-Marie Lambert, U1 Arts, reflected on rising housing costs in a statement to The Tribune.
“The only reason my parents and I are able to live on the first floor of a beautiful triplex in the Plateau is because we rent it at a discounted price from my extended family, who purchased the whole building for under $70,000 [CAD] back in the late sixties,” Lambert said. “To put that number in perspective, purchasing that same building in 2026 would run you well over $2,000,000 [CAD].”
