A coalition of community groups is mounting pressure on the Montreal and Quebec governments to adhere to a plan for social housing in the former Blue Bonnet Hippodrome racetrack site, which has been closed for more than a decade.
Groups say they are becoming impatient as the need for social housing becomes more urgent in the city.
“For more than 30 years, there have been terrible problems in Cte-des-Neiges that need to be answered,” Darby Macdonald, community organizer for Project Genesis, told protesters on Tuesday. “There are 4,235 households in Cte-des-Neiges who are paying 80 percent or more of their income for their rent.”
Last fall, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante pledged to build 7,500 housing units around the Hippodrome site, including at least 2,000 for social housing.
This is not the first time that such units have been promised on site.
In 2013 former mayor Gerald Tremblay promised to include them as part of the site’s development.
Noting that nothing had happened so far, community groups in the area drew attention to the urgent need following the annual running day of July 1 this year.
“A few days after the first July, there are still about 120 tenants who are still seeking an apartment in Montreal,” said Catherine Lucier, community activist at the Front d’action Popular en Remanagement Urbane (FRAPRU), a housing advocacy organization.
For weeks the plant administration has blamed both the provincial and federal government for failing to finance such projects.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson explained that the city is in talks with the province, and that they intend to maintain their commitment to the Hippodrome “to create a complete neighborhood for thousands of Montreal families, including comprises a significant proportion of affordable, social and family housing.
A week ago the province announced plans to build 3,000 affordable and social housing over three years.
“Which doesn’t answer all the needs of tenants looking for apartments better than us,” said Lucier of the plan.
He and other housing advocates say they hope governments are listening.