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The time has come for Quebec to recognize the right to accommodation and put in place measures to enforce this right, a coalition of 500 organizations said on Tuesday.

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Representatives of community organizations, unions, student groups and others, supported by some twenty public figures, also demanded other rights — including health and food security — during a press conference in Montreal.

“These rights are interdependent,” said CSN President Caroline Senneville. “When we are poorly housed, when we are in unsanitary housing, what about our right to health? When we spend too much of our income on housing, what happens to our right to food security? »

The groups said nearly all cities in Quebec have vacancy rates below 3%, which is considered the break-even point. Some regions have rates close to zero.

The organizations are calling on the Government of Quebec to include the right to housing in the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, to admit that there is a housing crisis and to put in place a real housing policy that includes massive investments in social housing, including cooperative, non-profit and social housing.

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Philippe Néméh-Nombré, vice-president of the Ligue des droits et libertés, noted that Quebec signed an international agreement to recognize the right to housing in 1976 and did not honor its signature. “The Government of Quebec is failing to put in place the essential elements of the right to housing.

The groups are also calling for better regulation of the private sector to limit renovations, Airbnb and other tourist rentals, and real estate speculation.

“It’s been a year since (Minister of Housing Andrée Laforest) said she was thinking about it, and still nothing,” said Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU). She said legislation is essential to discipline the private sector.

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“The evictions are increasing and so far the government has done nothing significant, rejecting the structural measures we were asking for.”

About 200,000 Quebec households devote more than half of their income to housing and 40,000 households are waiting for places in subsidized housing.

Louise Lafortune, spokesperson for the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victims de violence conjugale, said the housing crisis and rising rents have a direct impact on women seeking to flee an abusive spouse.

“We heard a lot about the lack of places in shelters,” she says. “One element that accentuates the lack of places is that stays are longer in shelters because of the difficulty for women to find quality and affordable housing.

The lack of housing is pushing up prices for families already struggling with inflation. In March 2021, Quebec had 610,000 people using food banks, an increase of 22% compared to 2019.

“We pay our rents and after, with what’s left, we try to eat, and when that doesn’t work, we go to food banks,” Senneville said.