by KEN HECHTMAN

Karina Chagnon, of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) Housing Committee, explains why a coalition of St-Henri residents prefer a pair of derelict factories as neighbours to the proposed Quai des éclusiers sur le canal high-rise, 450-unit condominium project. “St-Henri is 75 per cent tenants and the average family income is $19,000,” she says. “If you bring in another 450 luxury condos, rents will rise and people will be forced out of their homes. Sure, there’s rent control, but there are ways around it. You take an apartment off the market for a year, you can reintroduce it at any rate you want.”

“If you repossess half the units in the building for personal use or empty them all, condo moratorium doesn’t apply,” adds Simon Dumais of the Projet d’organization populaire d’information (POPIR), a tenants’ rights group. The industry jargon for that is “warehousing,” and CLAC has counted 35 warehoused buildings in the neighbourhood. Dumais also reports that illegal rent increases have gone from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of POPIR’s caseload, and the increases range from $50-$80 per unit to as high as $150.

A bigger concern is rising commercial rents. Chagnon attacks the promoters’ argument that condos lead to improved commercial services. “Sure, if another 450 yuppie families come in, more boutiques will open up,” she says. “Everything in them is priced out of reach of neighbourhood people. You’ll get more box-stores—we already have Home Depot and Super C—but if you don’t own a car you can’t shop there.”

Neighbourhood businesses, they claim, will feel the squeeze faster than tenants will: most small businesses rent on a month-by-month lease and there are no legal limits on commercial rent increases.

Unconditional cash-grab

Pierre Richard, general manager of the Regroupement pour le relance économique et sociale du Sud-Ouest (RÉSO), approaches the issue from a different perspective. He runs a business development organization, not an anti-capitalist one, but he’s quick to explain the difference between development and land speculation. “Development isn’t just anything that makes money,” he says. “It has to be durable, respectful and profit the community in some way. What we deplore is that the city and borough have imposed no conditions [on the project]. Normally there are some conditions applied.”

The condition he had in mind, which he still hopes to negotiate with the promoters, is to set aside 25 per cent of the units for low-income housing. The jargon for this is “cross-subsidy,” and compared to cross-subsidy schemes in the U.S., 25 per cent is low. “But,” he says, “it’s too late to block the project. We have to make a realistic proposal that includes the condos.” Chagnon and Dumais disagree, saying, “We want zero condos.”

“If there’s enough resistance, they won’t build it at all,” says Chagnon. “With enough pressure on city hall, they’ll block the construction permit.”

However, CLAC’s first foray into municipal lobbying got off to a rocky start. “Every one of 60 people spoke against the condos and 45 minutes later the permit to clear the site was granted,” Chagnon says, referring to the Sept. 27 public consultation on the site’s demolition permit. “[City councillor and borough president] Jacqueline Montpetit told us they had no legal basis for denying it. If the borough council has no discretionary power, then why are they there? If they have it and won’t use it, then why hold public consultations at all?”

Next, she says, they sent a delegation to the office of the borough councillors, who locked the doors and called the police. Demonstrators were similarly escorted out of the Nov. 25 city council meeting, according to Chagnon.

This month, they’re going back to what they know. A public meeting on Dec. 11 will feature speakers on the progress of gentrification in nearby Little Burgundy, where the process began in earnest 10 years ago, as well as St-Henri’s housing crisis, social housing and the upcoming anti-condo campaign. From Dec. 13–16, they’ll maintain a constant presence at the Quai des éclusiers sales office.

“The developers don’t yet have permission to break ground and they’re already selling units—do they know something the rest of us don’t?” Chagnon says. The big event will be on Dec. 16. “There are names behind the housing crisis and we intend to visit the people who profit from it.” :