Canada’s long-running housing crisis has been greatly exacerbated by the pandemic, to the extent that the most vulnerable communities are stuck in inadequate accommodation and face the threat of eviction due to a sharp rise in landlord discrimination.
COVID-19 is the latest blow to tenants in the greater Montreal area, who have suffered from less and less available housing, with a corresponding rise in rents, since 2000. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, between 2015 and 2019, the vacancy rate fell from 4% to 1.5% and the average rent rose from $744 to $841 in the area.
Several studies explain this shortage of affordable housing by what is known as the financialisation of housing – where its transformation into a major investment asset pushes prices up. These financial activities are not only the domain of banks or large real estate developers, they are also the result of political and fiscal decisions made by neoliberal governance.
