Are you happy at home? Or are you dreaming of moving? In the midst of a housing crisis, The duty called for reader stories, which will be published during the summer. A retired couple invited us to their new village in Beauce. The quest for a roof over their heads can become an obstacle course.
One day, Jean Riopel and Angèle Morin got tired of wondering how long they would have a roof over their heads. After two decades of struggling, going from an overpriced apartment to an unsanitary half-basement to a renovation, the retired couple took drastic measures to escape poverty. These Montrealers decided to start a new life in a region where they could afford to buy a house. Anywhere in Quebec.
They scoured real estate sites for weeks. They finally found the rare pearl in Saint-Zacharie, a municipality of 1,684 souls located in Beauce, at the end of a long road full of valleys, five kilometers from the border with Maine.
A bargain awaited them in this isolated village: a four-bedroom house was offered for $38,000. Almost half as much as the average price of a new car (which was $67,259 at the end of 2023, according to Autohebdo). They negotiated it for $35,900. Thanks to a small inheritance, they were able to change the furnace, water heater, doors and windows.
The couple thanks God that they had the courage to make this radical gesture — leaving everything behind to start over from scratch in a region where they had never set foot. “We are economic refugees. Being here saved us. It was the best thing we could do,” says Jean Riopel, sitting in his kitchen in Saint-Zacharie.
Perpetual crisis
The purchase of their house dates back to 2018. Before what we now call the “housing crisis”. But Jean Riopel and Angèle Morin, who have worked all their lives for modest wages, have been experiencing a housing crisis for almost 20 years.
They were evicted in 2005, with their three children in shared custody, from a huge apartment at $475 per month in the Hochelaga district of Montreal. “From there, we experienced a decline,” summarizes Angèle Morin.
Since then, the children have left the family nest, but the two retirees have had to struggle to find accommodation. Loss of job, bankruptcy, forced stay in a moldy semi-basement, severe depression, the couple moved multiple times – again in Hochelaga, then in Rosemont, in Saint-Félix-de-Valois and in Joliette, in Lanaudière , before their exile in Beauce.
Even after making their nest in Saint-Zacharie, Jean Riopel and Angèle Morin once again had to “change tack on a dime,” as they say here. With the cost of living skyrocketing following the COVID-19 pandemic, they struggled to make ends meet.
Last year, they sold their house to a couple from Laval. They now had to find reasonably priced accommodation. Not easy in Saint-Zacharie, where rental apartments can practically be counted on the fingers of one hand (apart from HLM).
Sunbeam
There must be a lucky star for the “economic refugees” in times of crisis: a charming apartment has become available a five-minute walk from their house. The rent is at an unexpected price: $390 a month for this two-bedroom apartment in the top of a triplex where the sun shines all day.
“We must not overdo it if we want to have good tenants,” explains Armoza Turgeon, co-owner of the building with her sister.
She knows the state of the rental market in the region, but refuses to fuel the housing crisis, which is raging here as elsewhere. In the surrounding municipalities, apartments are advertised at $1,200, $1,300, $1,600 per month. The signs saying “housing for rent” or “house for sale” fly away in the blink of an eye.
Jean Riopel and Angèle Morin sometimes pinch themselves when they realize how lucky they are to have finally found a cozy cocoon. The bright apartment is tastefully decorated. Reproductions of paintings adorn the walls. A painting shows an alley in Hochelaga, as if to recall their former life. Books, CDs and vinyls compete for space on the shelves of the libraries.
Village life
Life is good in Saint-Zacharie. The couple has made friends. All services, pharmacy, supermarket, ATM, are within walking distance. No need to wear out the 2014 Toyota Matrix. There are not many job offers in the area, but for retirees, that is not a problem.
A cooperative offers high-speed Internet, something other regions closer to major centers do not have. A peddler even delivers The duty at their door (and at the local convenience store).
“If we miss Montreal? Not really,” says Jean Riopel. In any case, they “no longer had the means to live in the city”. They were forced into exile.
Before retiring, Jean Riopel had to travel by car, among other things for his job as a funeral director that took him from Rosemont to Saint-Laurent and LaSalle. “I was always in construction and traffic. Montreal is a city suffocated by cars.”
The “biggest sacrifice” of their exile in Beauce was moving away from their grown children, all in their thirties. Two live in Montreal, another in Drummondville. They don’t see them often, but when they do, they are happy.
They also miss cultural life. Aside from cows and trucks loaded with lumber, there aren’t many shows around Saint-Zacharie. The couple has tickets for Elisapie in Saint-Damien-de-Buckland and for Marie-Pierre Arthur at L’Anglicane de Lévis.
Oddly enough, the noise is the biggest nuisance. The couple lived on the two busiest streets in the village. The houses are stuck to the streets, all on slopes. Heavy trucks make a racket going up and down the hills. Not to mention the snowmobiles, motocross bikes, Harley-Davidsons and ATVs that backfire happily.
This is the biggest inconvenience. But it’s nothing to have a roof over your head.
