CLAC LOGEMENT SAYS NO TO THE GENTRIFICATION OF ST-HENRI!

Confronted with opposition to the Quai des Éclusiers development, city councillors flee

Montreal, November 13, 2002.

A delegation of 10 members of the CLAC Housing Committee, primarily residents of the South-West, visited city councillors Line Hamel, Robert Bousquet and Jacqueline Montpetit at their burrough office this morning, at 10:30 AM. The members of the delegation insisted on meeting with the councillors to demand that they refuse to grant a construction permit to Développements des Éclusiers, a real-estate development company contributing to the gentrification of St-Henri by building 450 units of luxury condos (complete with a private marina and cinema) along the Lachine Canal.

There is ample evidence that the majority of residents in the South-West are opposed to the condo projects. Yet the elected officials for the South-West have ignored this oppostion, and their « community consultation process » has been a farce. There was only one, poorly advertised, open burrough meeting, held on September 27, 2002. The councillors listened for 2 hours as a packed room of South-West residents spoke against the condos, and then promptly granted a demolition permit to the developers. The St-Henri housing committee, POPIR, presented a serious factual appeal to the decision, only to be ignored. Members of the community have been polite, and have tried to make their voices heard through the « proper channels ». CLAC Housing decided this week that it was time for the elected officials to listen to their constituents.

The Councillors refused to meet with the delegation this morning. Poor and working people in the South-West and across the city face displacement and homelessness as a result of rapidly rising rents and a housing shortage. Considering the severity of Montreal's housing crisis, members of the delegation decided that the situation was too urgent to wait for a later appointment with Hamel, Bousquet and Montpetit, They confronted the politicians in their boardroom and presented the letter attached below. Aides to the Councillors called police and shoved visitors aside to allow their bosses to escape without responding to the demands. While they called the members of the delegation « aggressive savages, » the true acts of aggression are perpetrated by politicians who build luxury condos for yuppies, while people sleep on the streets and families are forced out of their homes.

This is only the first of many actions that will be taken by CLAC Housing and other residents of the South West to stop the gentrification of the neighborhood and to secure housing for people who need it. Delegations will return to the Burrough office again and again, until the Councillors publicly announce the refusal of the construction permit for the Dévellopements des Éclusiers project. Members of the community will show their strength at Burough meetings and city council meetings. The Quai des Eclusiers condo project will be stopped. The people of the South-West will not be driven out by gentrification and profit.

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To: City councillors for the South-West
6039 Monk Blvd.
H4E 3H5

CC: Mayor Gérald Tremblay, Montreal City Council, Compagnie Développements des Éclusiers, and Canadian media outlets (Radio-Canada, La Presse, La Voix populaire, etc.)

RE: Open Letter to Line Hamel, Robert Bousquet and Jacqueline Montpetit
November 13, 2002

Montreal, Quebec -- As residents, tenants and citizens of the Burrough of the South-West, CLAC Logement once again demands that no condominiums be built on along the Lachine Canal. We reaffirm our unequivocal rejection of the development of 450 units of luxury condos by the Compagnie Développements des Éclusiers at 4110-4120 St-Ambroise.

In the context of Montreal's housing crisis, such a project is not harmless. Rather, it has real and serious consquences for the local populace that is already subjected to exorbitant rent hikes, increasingly frequent evictions and landlord repossessions undertaken in bad faith. The construction of this complex will make the gentrification of the area irreversible. It will result in the displacement of households that can't hope to be able to pay $1,200 for a 5 1/2. We remind you that more than 75% of the residents of the South-West are tenants and that the average annual income of these residents is less than $19,000.

Twice already you have pretended to hold public consultations regarding the demolition permit for the buildings situated at 4110-4120 St-Ambroise Street. During these consultations many representatives of various community groups as well as residents of the area clearly expressed their opposition to the project. We have pursued the procedures prescribed by your bureaucracy only to come to the conclusion that just like the condos that that were sold before the developer even got a demolition permit, our representatives have also been bought and sold.

You have not only the power but the duty and the obligation to all those who are victims of the housing crisis not to grant the construction permit for these condos. Know that your concern for the interests of the property developers will not pass unremarked.

We are visting you to deliver a warning cry from the community. If today you ignore our demand once again, you will not be able to ignore us at the City Council meeting on November 25th.

CLAC Logement