CAQ asked to take action on sharp rise in evicted tenants

Tenants are losing their homes on an unprecedented scale as owners evict them for renovations, Québec solidaire MNAs and housing organizations said at a press conference Sunday.

Landlords are exploiting loopholes in the housing law to get rid of occupants so they can jack up rents, repurpose apartments as shortterm tourist rentals or turn them into condos, said Ruba Ghazal, member of the National Assembly for Mercier, which includes the sought-after Plateau-Mont-Royal and Mile End districts.

“It’s a real housing crisis,” said Ghazal, who was accompanied by the party’s housing critic, Andrés Fontecilla, as well as some displaced tenants and housing advocates.

The MNAs called on the Coalition Avenir Québec government to declare a moratorium on evictions for the purposes of altering or repurposing housing units in areas where the vacancy rate is under three per cent.

“The number of complaints has doubled since last year,” said Ghazal.

She noted many tenants, especially the elderly and immigrants, leave without contesting the eviction, either because they don’t know their rights or can’t handle the stress of doing so.

Landlords do not have to prove that the renovations are necessary or that they truly intend to carry them out, she added.

“Here in Quebec, the responsibility to investigate is on the shoulders of the tenants,” Ghazal said.

The result of the rise in evictions is that central neighbourhoods are losing diversity as seniors, families, immigrants and low-income residents are pushed out in favour of young professionals able to pay higher rents, as well as by Airbnb-type rentals, she said.

Andréanne Leclerc-Marceau and Éric Beaulieu were recently evicted from their $888-per-month, all inclusive, two-bedroom apartment where Leclerc-Marceau had lived for 14 years.

The landlord told them the rent would more than double after the renovations, they said.

They contested the renovations before the Quebec Rental Board and lost their case but won a substantial financial settlement from the landlord, they said.