The Executive Committee of the City of Montreal adopted a resolution recommending that the municipal council approve a draft deed by which the city will acquire the building located at 690-700 rue Jarry Ouest, in the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, at the cost of $4.75 million.
Of this amount, the borough invests $200,000 of its budget. In doing so, the City is implementing favorable conditions for the development, by a non-profit organization, of a project of around thirty affordable housing units on this site. The project can be defined together with the community. This action will make to increase the housing supply in a sector of the city that is strongly affected
by the pressures of the real estate market.
“We are very pleased to confirm the intention to acquire this building, which could contribute to meeting the needs of the community in a concrete way. A new era of development is emerging in Montreal in recent months. Thanks to our new tools and an agile and reactive real estate approach, the City knows how to create opportunities and seize them to allow the realization of more social and
affordable housing projects. With the Regulation for a mixed metropolis, pre-emption rights for
social housing and housing, and the Chantier Montréal Affordable, we are implementing actions to strengthen the affordability of the metropolis for decades to come,” said Benoit Dorais, vice-president of the executive committee, responsible for housing, real estate strategy and legal affairs.
“The housing needs are glaring, particularly in Parc-Extension. Every week, the phone rings at the office, and on the other end of the line there is a distraught person, about to be ousted. And it’s not because we’re inactive at the City or in the borough, on the contrary. We are using all the levers at our disposal, in particular the acquisition of land, but now, the higher governments must play their role so that projects see the light of day on these lands. We must act to provide decent rent for the most vulnerable,” explained the mayor of the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Laurence Lavigne Lalonde.
Since 2019, the City of Montreal has taken concrete actions for the construction of 120 social and affordable housing units in the Parc-Extension district. In addition to these actions, there are the results of reflections carried out on several axes, including the City’s land tools, within the framework of the Affordable Building Site. This exercise in collective intelligence, in pooling various expertise in search of
innovative solutions, facilitates the emergence of concrete and innovative affordable projects for the future.
Park-Ex councillor Mary Deros said that this project has been pushed for 12 years now and this is the 3d and final attempt which ultimately gave results. “This is a building that is right in the middle of Park extension. It occupies an entire block and a multitude of buses pass by it making it ideal as a combined community center apart from the affordable housing units.” She added.
