Affordable housing units languish in disrepair as governments invest billions in new builds

Mercedes Rodriguez and her seven children struggle to sleep at night because of the sound of mice scurrying in the walls of her apartment in Montreal's east end. Beyond the infestation, her social housing building in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is plagued by mold, and her clothes dryer once caught fire because of poor ventilation in the bathroom.

She's waiting for long-promised renovations that have not materialized. "It's frustrating, really," she said.

While federal and provincial governments pour billions into constructing new affordable housing units, thousands of existing units sit in disrepair, their residents caught between housing urgency and a maintenance crisis. The contradiction is stark: new money for new buildings while people in current public housing deal with conditions that would be unacceptable in any other context.

For families like Rodriguez's, the policy focus on future housing rings hollow when their present living situation is genuinely unsafe. Renovation backlogs in social housing buildings across Montreal suggest that the city's affordable housing crisis isn't just about supply—it's about the systems we use to care for people already in the system.

This is the gap between ambition and execution. Montreal has committed to addressing the housing crisis, but the people already in social housing are still waiting.