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Montreal Women’s Right to Housing: We’re Working on It, Are You? 

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Demands for Montreal women's right to housing

There is still a great deal of work to be done to ensure women's right to housing in Montreal. Organizations on the ground have been working hard, especially over the past several months. Our governments must recognize the right to housing for all women in Montreal, starting with adopting concrete yet ambitious measures to offer adequate housing and support to women who are experiencing difficulties and increase the number of social and community housing units. These efforts should allow Montreal women to choose the living environment that best suits their needs.

To resolve the Housing Crisis

Take Action to Preserve Affordable Rental Housing

  1. That governments implement a public rent registry to prevent abusive increases.
  2. That governments implement mandatory universal rent control rather than simply emitting recommendations for rent increases.
  3. That governments ban landlord repossessions and evictions when vacancy rates drop below 3%.
  4. That the Tribunal administratif du logement oversee landlord repossessions and evictions to ensure they are well-founded, rather than making tenants responsible for contesting them.

Protect Montreal Women's Right to Housing

  1. That governments recognize the right to housing for all inhabitants and develop strategies that include concrete measures to protect that right.
  2. That municipalities hire local resource staff to prevent violence towards women tenants.
  3. That municipalities ensure gender parity in roles related to home safety inspections to facilitate contact with women tenants.
  4. That municipalities hire interpreters for people using City services, particularly during home inspections.
  5. That municipalities support the development of culturally adapted services for Inuit and First Nations women.
  6. That governments implement measures to prevent and combat harassment and all other forms of violence experienced by women in their homes, whether they live in a social, community or private housing.

To better support women in difficulty

Improving Support Offered to Women in Difficulty

  1. That governments and institutions integrate a real differential intersectional gender-based analysis (GBA+) at the systems level for all homelessness measures, ensuring that the expertise of first-line women's groups is taken into account.
  2. That governments establish long-term solutions that draw from existing resources instead of ad nauseum cycles of emergency measures.
  3. That governments integrate means beyond shelters and housing to prevent homelessness at the source (increasing the minimum wage, increasing social assistance payment amounts, preventing violence, increasing access to mental health services, etc.) in strategies used to fight homelessness.
  4. That governments support the creation of new resources that can help underserved populations, including universally accessible shelter resources with a high threshold for inclusion (e.g., sex workers, drug users, people with pets).
  5. That governments institute financial aid for women leaving shelters to help them get settled in new housing.
  6. That governments put a one-stop system in place to connect people with accessible, adaptable and adapted housing.

 

Supporting Groups That Work with Women in Difficulty

  1. That governments recognize the vital work of community organizations that support women experiencing or at risk of homelessness and increase the funding for these organizations to fulfill their mission adequately.
  2. That governments support the development and maintenance of single-gender women's shelters on a human scale by providing funding for all beds and subsidies that allow for good working conditions.
  3. That governments fund organizations that want to offer post-shelter services to ensure continued support for women.
  4. That governments implement subsidies to support organizations that want to improve accessibility and inclusivity of their sites and services.
  5. That governments implement a subsidy to support organizations that want to offer services to help women find housing.

to Improve Access to Social and Community Housing

Improving Social Housing Stock

  1. That governments support the development of social and community housing projects that meet women's needs in all their diversity so that they can choose a living environment that's best for them.
  2. That governments reserve the third of social and community housing budgets for projects specifically for women and their families.
  3. That governments reserve social and community housing units for projects for populations with disproportionate struggles with housing, particularly Indigenous populations, people living with disabilities, and immigrants.
  4. That governments commit to supporting the development of at least 23,000 social housing units over the next five years.
  5. That cities purchase vacant lots and buildings for social housing projects.
  6. That funding for social housing includes sufficient amounts to include community spaces that offer culturally adapted support services.

Improving Accessibility and Inclusivity in Social and Community Housing

  1. That governments implement subsidies to support organizations that want to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of their housing or offer culturally adapted services.
  2. That governments develop an action plan to make all social and community housing accessible and adaptable for people with limited mobility.
  3. That governments determine construction norms based on principles of universal accessibility, going beyond those in the Quebec Construction Code, and that these norms be used in construction projects carried out on municipal land.
  4. That governments recognize the right to housing of people without status, allowing them access to the Rent Supplement Program.
  5. That governments widen eligibility criteria for social housing to prioritize all women who are leaving violent situations, regardless of their current place of residence.
  6. That governments work with informed stakeholders to organize training workshops on the GBA+, sexual violence, colonialism, systemic racism and universal accessibility for bureaucrats as well as actors from the social and private housing spheres (e.g., real estate developers, technical support groups, project organizers, builders, architects.)
  7. That social housing allocation procedure be subject to reform to make access simpler and faster.

Supporting Groups that Offer Social Housing

  1. That municipalities exempt all social and community housing from property tax.
  2. That governments increase funding for community support in social housing according to organizations' needs.
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