The solution to the housing crisis is off-market housing investment: advocate
Why It Matters
An advocate says the government has ignored a potential solution to the housing crisis for too long. Here’s what a group of foundations is doing in Quebec.
Desjardins Group is making a significant investment in partnership with leading charitable organizations to address Quebec’s growing social housing needs.
The financial cooperative group announced a new $50 million investment fund to accelerate the development of affordable and environmentally sustainable housing across Quebec.
Called The Amplifier Fund, it is designed to support non-profit and housing cooperatives to help ease the province’s housing crisis.
The fund will provide patient capital to help fast-track construction and acquisition efforts that meet social and environmental standards.
“Foundations are listening to what community members and community groups have been saying for many years,” said Shannon Franssen, the interim Coordinator of Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ).
“We need a systemic solution to the housing crisis and that solution is off-market housing,” said Franssen.
In 2021, 3.5 per cent of Québec households lived in social and affordable housing, according to the Quebec government.
The number increases to five per cent in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region.
Demand for social and affordable housing outpaces supply.
“What community groups and what housing rights groups have been asking very clearly is funding to build 10,000 units per year for the next few years so that there can be a real increase in the number of off-market housing,” Franssen said.
In 2021, nearly 50,700 Quebec households were on a waiting list for a social or affordable housing unit, and 30,500 have been waiting for two years or more.
“The federal government is absolutely willing to dish out tonnes of money for new infrastructure projects,” she said.
“Why isn’t off-market housing on that list? It should be very much on the list and on the radar of the Canadian government and provincial governments across Canada.”
To qualify for the fund, projects must offer universally accessible units and rents aligned with the Quebec Affordable Housing Program.
Buildings must exceed 2015 national energy code requirements by at least 35 per cent and operate entirely without fossil fuels, ensuring high energy performance and reduced carbon impact.
Six organizations have sponsored the fund, including Centraide of Greater Montreal, the Foundation of Greater Montréal, the Trottier Family Foundation, the Lucie and André Chagnon Foundation, the McConnell Foundation, the Fondation Marcelle et Jean Coutu, along with the Société d’habitation du Québec and the Government of Quebec.
The fund will support housing projects using the Desjardins Affordable Housing Initiative, which is already helping build more than 3,000 affordable housing units.
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