Why Habitat Hippodrome?

Housing is essential to individual security, well-being, and happiness. Canada is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes housing as a fundamental human right, and in 2019 the right to housing was formally recognized under Canadian law. However, many Quebecers are currently struggling to afford long-term housing, and many experts have argued that Canada continues to find itself in a housing crisis. Across the country, housing prices have consistently risen faster than incomes, and wait lists for social housing are getting longer.

The story in Montreal is consistent with the national situation: from 2000 to 2015, housing prices in the city increased by 172% while incomes rose by only 47%. For rental units, which make up 63% of households, average rents have, since 2016, risen from $720 to $913. Even with Quebec’s rent control laws, which are designed to protect prices on existing rental properties, rents are increasing across the city. This not only heightens precarity for already vulnerable low-income populations; even middle-class Montrealers are increasingly struggling to find affordable housing.

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Source: OMHM and Government of Quebec

Source: CMHC

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Over a third of Montreal households do not have access to affordable housing as defined by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. In 2016, in the City of Montreal:

36.5% (or 180,000) households pay more than 30% of their income on housing
17.7% (or 87,000) households pay more than 50% of the income on housing
8.5% (or 40,000) households pay more than 80% of their income on housing.

Over the past several years, rising inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this crisis. Between 2020 and 2021, increasing unaffordability has driven 48,000 people out of the City of Montreal as they move to suburbs in search of more affordable housing. Coupled with future population growth in the Montreal region reaching 4.7 million inhabitants by 2031, it is likely that housing unaffordability will remain a prominent issue for decades to come.

The Hippodrome site is one of the last large tracts of publicly held land in Montreal. We believe this site represents an excellent opportunity for both levels of government to collaborate and show their commitment to housing as a human right and to help create an accessible, ecologically-conscious community. To this end, we propose that the City of Montreal use the Hippodrome site to provide permanently affordable, decommodified housing, with collective governance, social infrastructure, and green spaces. This would take the form of a large-scale, 20-year community development project called Habitat Hippodrome.

This proposal is supported by four main imperatives:

Imperative 1: Pursuing decommodified housing at the Hippodrome site will help address the housing affordability crisis in Montreal. The site is public land capable of delivering thousands of units of housing. Ensuring that this housing is shielded from the volatility of the market will meet the needs of the public without unduly burdening the private sector with a task it cannot fulfil on its own.

Imperative 2: This proposal will both allow the federal government to fulfil its legal obligation to Canadians’ right to housing and help achieve the municipality’s goal of providing affordable housing in Montreal. The City of Montreal has declared its intention to provide affordable, accessible, and well-maintained housing for its residents. Using this site for permanently decommodified housing is a concrete step towards actualizing these goals.

Imperative 3: Keeping the land public will have greater long-term financial benefits for the City of Montreal. While selling the land will result in immediate funding available for municipal coffers, maintaining public stewardship of the land will yield far greater financial benefits in the long run.

Imperative 4: The provision of decommodified, collectively-governed housing will ensure both economic diversity and permanent affordability for residents. Thousands of families will receive a much-needed place to live and gain long-term housing security. The structure of this proposal will also ensure a healthy level of economic diversity in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.

The details of this proposal can be found in the full report, under the Documents tab. There you will find information about the proposed governance model, design of the site, and a financial feasibility analysis.