TQSOI to host West Island Housing Forum

“Very little rental housing can be found in the southern West Island region,” remarked Alena Ziuleva.

The director of the non-profit agency Table de Quarter Sud de L’Ouest de L’Ile (TQSOI) was talking about the scarcity of rental properties in the West Island.

“Social housing and co-operatives are virtually absent in this area,” Ziuleva explained.

“A significant number of tenants in the southern West Island spend over 30% of their income on housing and when the cost of maintaining a household is this high, less money is available to cover the cost of food, medication, education and other essential costs of living.”

The NGO often holds public forums and “during public consultations with the citizens, affordable housing was one of the priorities identified for the southern West Island. A working committee has been formed and its role is to elaborate and implement an action plan in order to see improvements in housing situation in the area.”

As a response, TQSOI is hosting a West Island Housing Forum that will focus on the “current state of housing in the Southern-West Island and to help create solutions for a way forward,” she noted.

“Homelessness, especially in the form of couch-surfing, is a growing concern in the West Island, especially among the youth,” said Ziuleva.

Through research and collating available data, TQSOI has discovered that “the cost of housing in the West Island has increased by 19% over the past year for buyers? As well, 2 in 5 tenants spend 30% or more of their income on housing costs.

“This has forced seniors and young families to leave their neighbourhoods to find lower housing costs,” said Ziuleva.

The West Island Housing Forum will be on Saturday, November 3rd from 9am-2:30pm at the Arthur Seguin Chalet in Pointe-Claire. In attendance will be elected officials from all three levels of government, city planners, local residents and more. To register go online at info@tqsoi.org.