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Condos
vs Community:
Montrealers Fight
for Housing
Solutions
The
Bridge-Bonaventure
redevelopment in the
city's Southwest
presents an
unprecedented
opportunity. Will we
take it?
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By Savannah
Stewart
You
may not have heard
of the
Bridge-Bonaventure
sector by that name,
but every Montrealer
knows the place.
Think of the Farine
Five Roses sign, the
Bonaventure
Expressway, the
Victoria Bridge, Mel’s
Cité du Cinéma,
Habitat 67. This was
once the beating heart
of Canada's industrial
sector, a place where
millions of tonnes of
grain, steel and
lumber were loaded off
boxcars and onto ships
bound for the
Atlantic. Now that
most of Montreal's
heavy industry has
been decommissioned,
it's a place people
drive through on their
way downtown.
But if you care about
finding real solutions
to the housing crisis,
you should be paying
attention to the
future of
Bridge-Bonaventure.
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This
500-acre stretch of
industrial land, mostly
in Pointe-Saint-Charles
but also extending into
Ville-Marie, is the site
of one of the most
important redevelopment
projects in the city.
And the question of
housing — the most
contentious issue among
the project’s different
stakeholders — is far
from resolved.
Montreal is deep in a
housing crisis. One in
five Montreal households
can’t afford to pay both
rent and necessities,
and the average cost of
rent rose by 5.4 per
cent from 2021 to 2022,
the highest single-year
increase in 20 years.
Experts say one of the
most effective solutions
is to invest in
non-market housing
(social housing,
cooperatives, long-term
care facilities, etc.),
which provides a roof
for people without
causing upward
pressure on the
market. In this
context, it is essential
to build a mix of social
and community housing,
say community groups,
housing experts, and
even serving
politicians.
Large stretches of
public land are there to
do just that, they say,
arguing that public land
that has been paid into
by taxpayers should not
be transferred into the
private housing market,
especially not in a
housing crisis. But the
private real estate
developers with a
foothold in the area are
making their case for
privatized housing,
lobbying for development
that will yield a profit
which is by definition
incompatible with a
non-market housing
project. |
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The City
of Montreal’s Plan
directeur de mise en
valeur will dictate the
kind of development that
takes place in
Bridge-Bonaventure,
including zoning changes
that would impact
density and building
heights, and make or
break truly
community-oriented
development. That plan,
the result of
consultations with
stakeholders since 2019,
is now under the
scrutiny of a commission
at the Office de
consultation publique de
Montréal (OCPM), tasked
with providing
recommendations based on
an extensive process
assessing how the public
feels about the content
of this proposed Plan.
Here are the four most
important things you
should know about the
redevelopment at
Bridge-Bonaventure.
1. It’s at the
centre of a dogfight
over identity,
community and housing
in
Pointe-Saint-Charles
Before the
gentrification that
swept through
Pointe-Saint-Charles in
the last 20 years, the
area boasted a
non-market housing rate
of 40 per cent, one of
the highest in the
country. This was not an
accident — it was the
result of a mobilized
working-class that
fought tooth and nail to
create long-term
affordable housing. And
it has worked: though
the share of non-market
housing in
Pointe-Saint-Charles has
dropped to roughly 27
per cent because of
condo projects built
since the early 2000s,
the area’s historic
residents haven’t
entirely been pushed out
by skyrocketing housing
costs thanks to those
efforts.
As ground zero for
Canada’s industry, the
neighbourhood sprung up
around the trainyards
and factories where its
residents worked.
Working-class
francophones settled
around the Lachine Canal
in Pointe-Saint-Charles’
northern portion, while
the south was the
settling ground for
Irish immigrants who
built the railways that
modernized the Canadian
economy. Later came
waves of immigrating
Eastern Europeans
followed by Caribbean
rail workers who found a
strong sense of
community solidarity
here.
But the neighbourhood’s
population has shifted
markedly. Those who
weren’t lucky enough to
get into a co-op have
largely been priced out
of the private rental
stock in the area. There
has been a prolonged
exodus out of “the
Point,” as duplexes are
bought up and flipped
for a profit, leaving
the people who rented
them to find housing
further and further away
from the downtown core.
Stories of renovictions
have long been making
the rounds. Evocative
scenes like luxury
condos built next to the
Saint Columba House
community centre, or a
Tesla parked a stone’s
throw away from a
halfway house, have
become a commonplace
experience living in
what was once dubbed
Canada’s toughest
neighbourhood.
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The
community group
Action-Gardien put up
posters to raise
awareness about
upcoming development
in Bridge-Bonaventure.
PHOTO: Savannah
Stewart |
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The group that
was the catalyst for
such high rates of
non-market housing in
the area, the historic
Projet Saint Charles,
has a waitlist of
1,150 households who
need to find housing
at an affordable
price.
The high proportion of
social and cooperative
housing here has
created a particularly
conspicuous mixité
sociale as
young professionals
and families bought
into the area en
masse. The
neighbourhood is
changing, and there
are fears that the
departure of its
historic residents
will mean the
disappearance of the
neighbourhood’s
identity. Those who
remain, in an area
that has so far kept
its pronounced
activist edge, are
hopeful the city will
seize on the
opportunity
Bridge-Bonaventure
presents to further
Pointe-Saint-Charles’
heritage of strong
social nets and
community solidarity.
Non-market housing is
part of
Pointe-Saint-Charles’
past and present, and
many speakers came to
the commission to
argue that it must be
part of its future,
too.
2. There are
big players in the
game
During the ongoing
OCPM consultations,
commissioners heard 59
opinions presented by
real estate
developers, community
and environmental
groups, politicians,
scholars, architects,
historians, businesses
and concerned
citizens. Another 54
written opinions were
sent by members of the
public, and “numerous”
responses to an online
questionnaire are also
being considered.
These stakeholders are
using this opportunity
to try to shift the
plan closer to their
desired vision, be it
high-density condos
for the private
sector, or
moderate-density,
non-market housing for
the community groups.
The commission is now
drafting its final
report, to be
finalized in the
fall.
Even before it was
identified as a
strategic sector in
the city’s 2015 Schéma
d’aménagement et de
développement, a
massive redevelopment
plan for the Island of
Montreal,
Bridge-Bonaventure has
been drawing the
interest of private
developers who’ve been
buying up whatever
land they can because
of its high economic
potential.
It’s right next to
Griffintown, a
mini-city that sprung
out of the ground in
just a few years, and
the newly-built REM
passes through, though
as of yet there is no
official plan for a
stop within the
sector. It’s also
mostly undeveloped
land, as various
industrial buildings (and an entire
neighbourhood)
were demolished when
the area surrounding
the Lachine Canal was
de-industrialized in
the 1900s.
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Community
groups are as invested
in whatever goes up in
Bridge-Bonaventure as
the private developers,
particularly the
well-established Action-Gardien
in Pointe-Saint-Charles.
Alongside the lots owned
by developers like
Groupe Devimco,
Broccolini Construction,
and Groupe MACH are the
largest stretches of
public land so close to
downtown Montreal, owned
by Canada Lands Company
and Loto-Quebec – land
Action-Gardien and many
others are arguing
should stay public.
The real estate
developers, advocating
at the commission both
independently and all
together as a
consortium, and
Action-Gardien have
submitted their own
redevelopment plans for
the sector, making their
case for their vision.
Both the consortium and
Action-Gardien plans
have the backing of
different experts. Where
Action-Gardien has a leg
up is it also has
broader community
support in
Pointe-Saint-Charles, as
its
plan was developed
through community
consultation and signed
onto by over 3,000
residents.
3. It presents
an unparalleled
opportunity to address
Montreal’s housing
crisis
The city’s plan outlines
a vision for the sector
that purports to honour
its industrial past by
prioritizing industry
and employment, while
aiming to create 7,500
new housing units,
mostly on the Canada
Lands property known as
the Wellington Basin.
With no quotas for
non-market housing, the
plan outlines the city’s
intention to negotiate
with Canada Lands in
hopes of surpassing the
provisions of the
Règlement pour une
métropole mixte (RMM)
for its property. That’s
the municipal
legislation that seeks
20 per cent each of
social, affordable, and
family housing in new
projects.
This legislation has
been criticized by
housing activists
because it makes it too
easy for developers to
pay out instead of
building the social
housing units, and
affordable and family
housing are privatized
so don’t guarantee real
affordability. Even so,
20 per cent social
housing is the floor set
by Montreal in Bridge
Bonaventure. We don’t
know what the ceiling
is.
Citizens, politicians
and public groups took
to the microphone to
hammer home the critical
need for social and
community housing, or
more out-of-the-box
options like public land
trusts (what is being
deployed at the Technopôle
Angus – a
long-term lease in which
the money put into your
home is more like a
deposit than paying
rent, to summarize
extremely briefly).
The Direction régionale
de santé publique de
Montréal recommended
setting social and
community housing quotas
superior to the RMM for
all housing development
in the sector — even on
private land. The Member
of the National Assembly
representing the
Saint-Henri–Saint-Anne
borough which includes
Pointe-Saint-Charles,
Québec solidaire’s
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard,
has called for
“ambitious” non-market
housing targets and
keeping public lands
public.
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“The
housing crisis
in Montreal
and other
large urban
centres in
Canada is not
accidental nor
temporary. It
is a crisis
that is
largely
created by
people,
primarily real
estate
developers.”
—Francis
Dolan,
community
organizer with
Regroupement
Information
Logement
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Margot
Silvestro, a community
organizer for the
Pointe-Saint-Charles
community clinic, said
the lack of adequate
housing is a barrier to
health that has long
affected the working
class, with even
middle-income families
feeling the squeeze
now.
“We absolutely must
build a massive project
for non-market, social,
community and subsidized
housing. The need is
glaring. The housing
developments of the last
20 years have not fixed
the crisis – on the
contrary, they have
accentuated it. It is
absolutely necessary,
and I insist, it is
absolutely necessary to
stop this type of
development,” she said.
When asked why the
community clinic
supports the moderate-density
development plan put
forward by
Action-Gardien,
which would provide
fewer housing units than
the high density
proposed by the private
developers throughout
the consultations, she
replied:
“If we look at
Griffintown as an
example, or the recent
high-density condo
projects in the downtown
core, that density has
not done anything to
quell the crisis.
Nothing at all. There
are as many, if not
more, households waiting
for affordable housing.”
What the developers
build is simply not what
the community needs, she
said, noting that condo
projects like the ones
being proposed by the
private sector in
Bridge-Bonaventure are
generally smaller units
intended for a
first-time buyer
clientele or retired
couples selling their
family house in the
suburbs to move back to
the city – not the
clientele living in
Pointe-Saint-Charles,
two-thirds of whom are
renters (the same rate
as Montreal as a whole).
After all, she said, up
to one-third of the
housing in Griffintown
was used as investment
property rather than
serving to actually
house community. That’s
according to a 2020
report by Canada
Mortgage and Housing
Corporation.
“The housing crisis in
Montreal and other large
urban centres in Canada
is not accidental nor
temporary,” said
community worker Francis
Dolan, during testimony
before the commission.
“It is a crisis that is
largely created by
people, primarily real
estate developers but
also public
decision-makers who
either encourage or
passively assist in the
erosion of our social
fabrics and the urban
structure as we know it
today in our
working-class
neighbourhoods.” |
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The
Transport Ray-Mont
site, now owned by
Groupe Devimco. PHOTO:
Savannah Stewart
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4.
Whatever gets built
will be extremely
costly – but we don’t
know just how much yet
When Québec solidaire
MNAs Cliche-Rivard and
Massé took their turn
passing in front of the
commission, Massé gave
an impassioned speech
about the need for
non-market housing.
“The Quebec government
clearly needs to start
acting to fix the
current crisis. We can’t
simply react once a new
(homeless) encampment
shows up because people
can’t find a place to
live. We have to react
to situations as they
arise,” she said. “And
for the provincial
government right now,
that means investing in
non-market housing.
“The project that is on
the table can get us
there if the Quebec
government does its part
by using the Loto-Québec
property to build
entirely non-market
housing. I recommend our
colleagues at Canada
Lands do the same with
their property.”
Yet when asked about how
concretely we can fund
that development,
Massé’s answer felt
incomplete: essentially,
“We have the land; let’s
fund it through our
governments.”
It’s an unsatisfactory
answer because our
provincial and federal
governments have proven
that they have little
interest in doing that.
The federal government’s
latest budget continues
a trend of promoting
home ownership and
affordable housing
(which is usually
privatized and its cost
tied to rising market
prices, thereby not
guaranteeing actual
affordability) and does
not invest in social
or non-market housing
in a meaningful way.
Meanwhile, Quebec
recently scrapped
its only program
dedicated to funding
social housing,
replacing it with a
call-for-projects
program for funding to
create affordable
housing that is also
open to the private
sector — so nonprofits
compete with real estate
developers to fund their
housing projects. That
program also renders new
social housing projects
through provincial funds
effectively impossible,
because the sums
provided are too low to
cover construction and
require other funding
streams to supplement.
And before even getting
to the point of
building, there are the
decontamination costs.
Because
Bridge-Bonaventure had
long been the site of
heavy industry, the cost
to decontaminate the
grounds is in the
hundreds of millions for
the entire sector. At
the commission, Canada
Lands representative
Christopher
Sweetnam-Holmes said
they believe they’re
looking at an $80
million price tag just
to decontaminate the
Wellington Basin.
The argument put forward
by the developers is
that high-density
residential development
was necessary to cover
the high decontamination
costs. What’s difficult
to know at this stage is
exactly what those costs
are and what level of
density would truly be
needed in order to
offset. Without that
clarity, there will
inevitably be concerns
that any high-density
private development in
the area will be an
exercise in maximizing
profits for
shareholders. Devimco
Immobilier is lobbying
the provincial
government for funding
to build in
Bridge-Bonaventure,
before the plan is even
finalized.
Still, the question of
who foots the bill for a
massive non-market
housing project on
contaminated land is a
valid one.
When I ask urban
planners or housing
experts who support such
a project how it could
realistically be funded
in this political
climate, the answer is
usually that governments
find the money to fund
things they believe are
important, and if Canada
and Quebec don’t believe
non-market housing is
important, then it’s up
to their citizens to
show them it is.
Of course, it’s one
thing to propose, and
another thing to
actually get enough
people mobilized
for the cause. But it’s
not just the people of
Pointe-Saint-Charles
with a stake in the
outcome — whatever gets
built in
Bridge-Bonaventure will
house the Montrealers of
today and tomorrow.
At least on some level,
the provincial
government does
understand that the
existing housing stock
is insufficient. Premier
François Legault stood
with Canada’s other
premiers at a first
ministers’ meeting in
Winnipeg this past week,
calling for more money
from the feds for
infrastructure,
including housing.
Through all the
questions and
uncertainty, there’s
something that’s for
sure: we are years away
from shovels breaking
ground in
Bridge-Bonaventure, let
alone the completion of
its renewal. Anything
can happen in the
meantime. |
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