Evictions: citizens block the offices of a borough

About twenty citizens mobilized in front of the town hall of Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension on Wednesday morning to try to convince the borough to reject a regulatory change which they believe risks contributing to the evictions of tenants in the area.

“Promise not kept, Villeray in the street!”, “Parc-Ex mobilized, with the evicted” are all slogans started at 8:30 am by tenants and representatives of organizations present in front of the building, located on avenue Ogilvy.

May 4, the elected officials of the borough adopted at first reading a by-law to prohibit the divisions and subdivisions of housing in buildings with three apartments or more. It also aimed to prevent housing expansions for buildings with two or more units. The borough thus intended to limit the reduction in the number of rental units available and the possibility for landlords to obtain renovation permits in order to evict their tenants and then increase the rental price of their accommodation.

This draft by-law has since been the subject of a public consultation this summer which has polarized tenants and owners. In particular, they said that such a measure would harm families wishing to expand their housing to meet their needs.

Relaxations

In a motion that will be voted on this afternoon as part of a special borough council meeting, councilor Rosannie Filato is proposing flexibility to this draft by-law. These aim, in short, to authorize the merger of rental housing in small buildings.

“This is unacceptable,” says the community organizer at the Parc-Extension Action Committee (CAPE), Amy Darwish, who asks the borough to adopt the initial version of this draft by-law. Otherwise, the latter will not succeed in preventing evictions of tenants in the borough, she fears.

The extraordinary meeting will take place at 2 p.m.

More details to come.