(Montreal) Groups defending tenants and low-income people are coming back to ask the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, to maintain the possibility for a tenant to transfer their lease, while the begin the study of the housing bill in Quebec.

These groups argue that lease assignment is one of the few measures tenants have left to keep rents at an affordable level.

If they lose this possibility, more people will be unable to find housing or find affordable housing, and there will be more discrimination against certain categories of tenants, argued Cédric Dussault, spokesperson for the Regroupement des committees logement and tenant associations (RCLALQ), Wednesday, during a press conference in Montreal.

“The assignment of a lease is not an attack on property rights, since owners do not have the right to discriminate or to circumvent the right to remain in the premises to evict tenants or impose excessive increases.” , said Mr. Dussault.

In the eyes of these groups, in the current context of housing shortage, there is an imbalance in favor of owners. The minister must therefore support tenants, by protecting them against evictions, against excessively high rent increases and by continuing to allow them to transfer their lease to another person.

“Quebec tenants are currently experiencing a very serious housing crisis. As of September 1, to give an overview of the most dramatic consequences of this crisis, more than 350 tenant households were still homeless and supported by a housing search assistance service in Quebec,” reported Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson. word of the Popular Action Front for Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU).

To help tenants, these groups are also demanding the implementation of a free public rent register and a cap on annual rent increases based on indices published by the Administrative Housing Tribunal.

Demonstrations to support the cause are planned for Saturday in Quebec, Montreal, Rouyn-Noranda, Sherbrooke and Rimouski.