Housing groups demand rent control and social housing in three-pronged election push
Simultaneous protests in Montreal, Quebec City, and Rouyn-Noranda call for Charter recognition of housing rights as the provincial election looms.
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Housing advocates across Quebec launched a coordinated push Wednesday with three concrete demands for the provincial government: implement rent control, build genuine social housing at scale, and recognize the right to housing in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Demonstrations took place simultaneously in Montreal, Quebec City, and Rouyn-Noranda, organized by the Coalition Against High Cost Housing (COLOC), an alliance of more than 120 organizations spanning unions, community groups, feminist networks, and student bodies.
"The demonstration clearly emphasizes an issue that, in the last year, has become the consensus of large parts of social movements," said Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU). "The high cost of housing affects people from different backgrounds, from different regions, who see how quickly rents have exploded in recent years."
Benoit Rullier, coordinator of the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ), outlined the coalition's three demands. Adding housing to the Charter means defending the right to decent housing for all — not settling for "four walls and a poor roof," he said.
For social housing, Rullier pointed out that Quebec has lacked "recurrent social housing in the necessary volumes" for years. The coalition wants real programs, not unaffordable units marketed as social housing.
On rent control, the coalition proposes adopting a rent registry — a tool already piloted by the organization Vivre en ville. "It would be quite simple to take an existing tool, adapt it, and we could have the means to manage rent escalation," Rullier said.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a household spending more than 30 percent of pre-tax income on housing is in financial stress. Tens of thousands of low- and modest-income Quebec tenants already exceed this threshold.
The coalition's push comes three months before the provincial general election, positioning housing as a central election issue.
