Defending the right to decent and affordable housing

A word from FGM – Vital Signs of Greater Montreal report on housing
November 2022

With its Vital Signs of Greater Montreal series of reports, the Foundation of Greater Montreal (FGM) aims to inform, bring together, and mobilize our community around the most important issues it faces. In gathering and disseminating contextualized and reliable data on the state of our community, our goal is to stimulate reflection, collaboration, and the implementation of solutions appropriate to these issues.

The housing crisis has again taken root in Greater Montreal in recent months and years. This has made the search for solutions critical. Across the region, the lack of affordable and adequate housing is fuelling skyrocketing housing costs. In turn, this forces many families to make impossible choices. This crisis affects every aspect of their quality of life: safety, physical and mental health, poverty and exclusion, educational achievement, food security, and more.

As you will see in the report, action is urgently needed. Our community will have to draw on all its strengths to meet this immense challenge. For this reason, FGM has joined forces with Centraide of Greater Montreal to develop and launch this study.

An affordability crisis affecting the most vulnerable

This edition of Vital Signs is intended to report on the housing situation in Greater Montreal. More specifically, our analysis examines two key variables of housing; accessibility and affordability. It also includes a mapping of the sectors and groups who are most vulnerable to current economic and real estate trends. We would like to thank the Institut du Québec for their skillful compiling and analysis of a wealth of previously unpublished data.

This work will facilitate the search for serious, concrete, and targeted solutions. When implemented in a concerted manner, these solutions will address the worst impacts of the current crisis. They should also focus on the most marginalized populations in our community.

We hope that releasing this Vital Signs report will heighten awareness of the situation’s urgency, not only within government bodies, but also in the community at large. Access to adequate and affordable housing is essential to living with dignity. Housing must therefore be considered a fundamental right, and all necessary resources should be invested now to guarantee this right for all. Together, let us commit to this goal. Thank you for your support!

Karel Mayrand
President and CEO
Foundation of Greater Montréal