West Island tenants seeking help jumps 63% as rents climb and affordable housing vanishes

The number of West Island residents seeking help from a local housing committee has surged 63 percent since 2023, with rent hikes and evictions becoming the dominant reasons tenants reach out for support.

The West Island Tenants' Action Committee (CALODI) helped 633 tenants in 2025-26 alone, an increase of 16.4 percent from the previous year. More than a quarter of all calls involved rent increases, while eviction cases made up over one in ten contacts.

The root issue: a third of West Island tenants now spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent—the threshold above which the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC) classifies housing as unaffordable. Between 2023 and 2024, rents for a two-bedroom apartment climbed $352 monthly in Pointe-Claire and $239 in Pierrefonds. By October 2025, median rents had reached $1,800 in Pointe-Claire, $1,475 in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, $1,400 in Pierrefonds, and $1,250 in Dorval.

"There is a severe lack of social housing in the West Island," said Lily Martin, community organizer at CALODI. The area has only seven buildings offering 385 affordable units—all exclusively for seniors. "There are zero HLM units in the West Island for individuals under 65 or for families," Martin stated.

The strain extends beyond calls for help. CALODI's annual report shows the number of case interventions jumped over 25 percent, with each file requiring an average of 2.7 interventions.