Activists demand social housing at track
Development of Blue Bonnets stuck in limbo
About 250 protesters marched to the abandoned Blue Bonnets raceway Friday afternoon demanding the Quebec government build 2,500 social housing units on the former horse-racing site for lowincome Côte-des-Neiges residents.
“In Côte-des-Neiges, there are over 33,000 people who live below the poverty line and there are over 2,000 people on the waiting list for social housing and that’s why we’re asking for (this),” said Claire Abraham of Project Genesis.
The community organization was joined by social housing advocates making the same pitch.
François Saillant, from the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), said there are serious housing problems in Côte-des-Neiges.
“We’re talking about more than 5,000 households spending more than 80 per cent of their income to pay for housing,” Saillant said.
FRAPRU, NO VOX and Project Genesis organized the gathering as part of the World Social Forum 2016 being held in Montreal this week.
It’s an annual meeting of civil society organizations to try to find sustainable solutions to what they see as the growing social and economic inequalities caused by globalization. Delegates from Mali, Portugal, the United Kingdom, United States, and France attended the march. Three residents displaced by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan also took part in
We had a forum last year, where we put together a whole community vision for what we want to happen on the site.
the march.
The racetrack, which went bankrupt in 2009, is a large undeveloped parcel of land. In 2012, Quebec agreed in principle to cede the 43.5-hectare site to Montreal to build 5,000 to 8,000 sustainable residential units. Three years later, the agreement remains unsigned and in limbo.
Abraham said Project Genesis wants to be included in the talks for a residential development there.
“We had a forum last year, where we put together a whole community vision for what we want to happen on the site. Where we want the parks, what kind of services we want. We can have something that’s green, innovative and inclusive,” she said.
In 2014 Côte-des-Neiges-NotreDame-de-Grâce borough mayor Russell Copeman had spoken of plans for 3,500 to 5,000 housing units on the Hippodrôme site. The city was still aiming, he said, for its standard of 15 per cent social and affordable housing. But that’s less than a quarter of the 2,500 they are seeking, Saillant and Abraham said on Friday.
On average 1,500 new social housing units are made available each year in Montreal, according to Saillant.
“Which is ridiculous considering the needs,” he said, adding that the Quebec government has made no guarantees that social housing units would be secured for lowincome households in a future development project on the site.