This past week, Montreal’s new mayor, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, announced her first budget, in which she plans to triple spending on homelessness initiatives. Her new Tactical Intervention Group on Homelessness (GITI) commits $29.9 million CAD to policing infrastructure, surveillance in public places, and social workers.
Despite the increase in allocated resources to fighting homelessness, Martinez Ferrada’s government has missed the big picture: The only way to solve the homelessness crisis is to put people in homes. However, Martinez Ferrada’s government has scrapped the 20-20-20 bylaw that required developers to allot 20 per cent of their units to social housing, 20 per cent to affordable units, and 20 per cent to family-sized units.
By scrapping the bylaw, Martinez Ferrada’s pledge to address the unhoused crisis in Montreal will persist unfulfilled. Instead of connecting more people with affordable housing, this approach will force more people onto the street.
There are two major types of homelessness: Visible homelessness which refers to people who are sleeping on the street, and hidden homelessness, referring to people who have no fixed address, bounce between friends’ couches, sleep in their cars, or live in shelters. In the fight against visible homelessness, the THRT could be quite useful. Martinez Ferrada’s emphasis on locating where many unhoused people are and providing them with the resources to get into some kind of shelter directly tackles the crisis.
However, the GITI—and Martinez Ferrada’s budget plan in general—does nothing to combat hidden homelessness. The social workers hired for work under the GITI cannot help a person if they do not already know the person is looking for help. It is impractical to design support systems for unhoused people in which police are expected to go up to everyone on the street and ask if they need help looking for an apartment. Hidden homelessness can only be wholly addressed by creating permanent, affordable housing options something which the 20-20-20 bylaw aimed to achieve.
According to the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ), about seven per cent of Quebecers aged 15 or older have experienced hidden homelessness in their lives, while 0.9 per cent of Quebecers experienced visible homelessness. The primary identified cause of hidden homelessness is eviction followed by individuals not being able to find a new, affordable place.
With more affordable housing, individuals experiencing homelessness will have an easier time finding another place after being evicted. Shelters are another solution, as might be the GITI—but these are not mutually exclusive of affordable housing.
Martinez Ferrada’s repealing of the 20-20-20 bylaw reduces the number of affordable units available for people experiencing homelessness or financial insecurity. When announcing her decision to repeal the bylaw, Martinez Ferrada claimed that the regulation’s requirements actually prevented new development in Montreal by discouraging developers from building more housing. Instead, the Martinez Ferrada administration chose to implement a set of incentives, including tax breaks, for developers to build more within the city. However, the evidence that the bylaw stemmed housing growth is not definitive.
Martinez Ferrada’s incentives offer no provisions for social and affordable housing, meaning there is no guarantee of any new affordable units for unhoused individuals experiencing hidden homelessness. While the 20-20-20 bylaw was not a guarantee of increased affordable housing, it at least ensured that something would be built. Mayor Martinez Ferrada’s new plan fails to do that.
If the Martinez Ferrada administration wants to get serious about combatting homelessness, it needs to get serious about building affordable housing. With the repealing of the 20-20-20 bylaw, it is not off to a good start.
