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In Montreal's future Namur-Hippodrome district, the city says it wants to create up to 20,000 new housing units by 2050, giving developers free reign to build luxury condos until proven otherwise. Organizations took advantage of a public consultation in June to demand a minimum of off-market housing and to share residents' fears.
The real estate development project is set to take place on the former Hippodrome site in Côtes-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (CDN-NDG). The site has belonged to the City of Montreal since 2017. Mayor Valérie Plante's administration says it wants half of the development to be reserved for affordable housing, without, however, issuing any quantified target or means of achieving this goal.
A development of 20,000 new unaffordable, entirely private housing units would have a major impact on the neighbourhood's composition. According to 2021 figures, 41% of Côte-des-Neiges tenants spend more than 30% of their income on rent, higher than the Montreal average.
North Star spoke with Soline Van de Moortele of the Organisation d'Éducation et d'Information Logement de Côte-des-Neiges (OEIL) about the public consultation on the new neighbourhood. The organization submitted a brief outlining the demands and concerns expressed by citizens at two round tables held in May.
"It has the potential to meet the most urgent needs of Côte-des-Neiges residents, because there really is a shortage. There's a huge housing shortage. But what we're really trying to say is that, yes, there's housing, but we need accessible housing. That means social housing in particular."
Mobilization to obtain social housing on the former racetrack site dates back to the 1990s. The OEIL demands 10,000 non-market housing units, including 4,800 social housing units. The city, for its part, prefers to use vague terms in its plan, such as a neighbourhood "in the image of the population of the CDN-NDG borough" or on a "human scale."
The housing committee organizer adds: "What's certain is that we're not the only ones mobilizing for social housing. Given that we've been mobilizing for 30 years, for us it's almost unacceptable that there are no guaranteed targets, because that would mean failing to recognize the work that has been put in by the community centres and residents of Côte-des-Neiges for decades."
Another demand put forward by OEIL is the creation of more housing for families. "For 10 years now, the community has been demanding that more housing be built for families. There's a real shortage. There's a large proportion of housing today that's 2 bedrooms, ideal for couples."
One solution favoured by the OEIL brief is the creation of a social utility trust on the site. Under this scenario, the city would cede the land to a group of organizations responsible for ensuring that development respects the needs of local residents.
The brief submitted by OEIL explains, "the trust would also help to boost residents' confidence in the project and allay their fears that it would only benefit the affluent population of Côte-des-Neiges. It is the optimal strategy to guarantee the site's protection against gentrification in perpetuity [...]."
Furthermore, the trust would ensure that social housing is distributed throughout the neighbourhood in such a way as to avoid ghettoization.