Housing Crisis | Thrown Out After 27 Years

After 27 years in his home in the Saint-Michel district of Montreal, Mario Lortie is the victim of an eviction and must leave the premises on the 1^is July, when he had not found a new home.

This situation causes a lot of anxiety for the 62-year-old man, even though he is supported by the City of Montreal’s emergency assistance service.

“My morale is not going well,” he says, as he receives The Press in his apartment cluttered with boxes. “Sometimes I hold my head in my hands because I’m so discouraged. It keeps me awake when I think about what’s coming.”

What awaits him immediately is a room in a downtown hotel and storage space for his belongings, offered by the emergency program of the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal. (OMHM).

Unsuccessful call

But a few months ago, Mr. Lortie feared being left to his own devices and becoming homeless: during his first call to the OMHM, last March, he was told that nothing could be done for him.

Mario Lortie has been on welfare since health problems forced him to quit his job as a social worker. The monthly rent for his four-and-a-half-bedroom apartment is $535.

Eviction

His troubles began when the duplex, where he occupies the second floor, was sold in 2022. The new owner told him he wanted to transform the building into a single-family home. Such transformations are now prohibited in some boroughs, but in Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, they are permitted if the total area of ​​the new dwelling does not exceed 200 square metres.

In 2023, the owner sent him an eviction notice, saying he wanted to do expansion work. However, his project did not include the expansion of the building. Mr. Lortie challenged the notice before the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) and won his case.

Its owner returned to the charge this year; he sent him a notice to repossess his accommodation, indicating that he wanted to live there himself. This time, the tenant lost before the TAL, simply obtaining compensation of $2,500 for his moving costs.

Housing committee to the rescue

After his first unsuccessful call to the OMHM, Mario Lortie contacted several housing committees to try to get help, since he could not find new affordable housing despite his searches. It was the Verdun Citizens’ Action Committee (CACV) that intervened so that he could access emergency assistance from the OMHM.

After analyzing his file, he was even told that he was eligible for a place in HLM.

The waiting list for housing in public housing is, however, long. “But as I am experiencing an eviction, my case becomes more urgent and I may have a chance of having a place more quickly,” says Mr. Lortie. The housing committee intervened to highlight my situation, it really supported me. Luckily I knew a little about community organizations, another person might have given up and found themselves on the street. »

If an apartment in HLM is offered to him, the tenant has no choice in accepting it, even if it is on the other side of the city, even if it is a simple studio, this which worries him too.

“Our premier, François Legault, does not seem aware of the crisis. He does not live on the same planet as us,” concludes Mario Lortie. “If he were in my shoes, he would see that things are not like before and that housing prices are exorbitant.”