Luc Rabouin wants a city that protects all tenants
Montreal, October 28, 2025 — It was at the Résidence Mont-Carmel, in downtown Montreal, that Projet Montréal leader Luc Rabouin today presented new measures to strengthen the protection of rental housing and ensure that everyone has the right to live and age with dignity in the heart of their neighborhood.
The choice of location is not insignificant. Mont-Carmel is a seniors' residence where tenants have mobilized in recent years to defend their right to housing against a negligent landlord who wanted to evict them to convert the residence into condos.
“When you've built your whole life in a neighborhood, you don't want to leave. And when two-thirds of Montrealers are renters—including many seniors—we have to make sure they are protected. From speculation, insecurity, and the fear of losing their homes,” said Luc Rabouin, leader of Projet Montréal.
ProtectingRPAs means protecting the 514
The Résidence Mont-Carmel is a good example of the challenges that many seniors' residences (RPAs) in Montreal have been facing in recent years: landlords seeking to evict vulnerable tenants in order to convert buildings and increase profits.
All Projet Montréal boroughs have adopted regulations to protect RPAs and prevent their conversion into condos, for example. In Lachine, this measure has protected the 237 units of the Les Floralies residence from speculation. In Mont-Carmel, the City has gone further by using its right of first refusal, allowing it to buy back the building if the owner decides to sell it.
These measures are in addition to others such as:
- The responsible landlord initiative and the systematic use of interventions in place of negligent landlords, which aim to ensure the salubrity of housing;
- Tightening the screws on short-term rentals (such as Airbnb); and
- The policy of buying back buildings to protect housing and their occupants from speculation.
“That's what Projet Montréal is all about: when we see injustice, we take action. Not for the sake of numbers, but for real people,” said Mr. Rabouin. "Our job is to enable those who built this city to continue to live here, in their neighborhoods, without going broke. "
Concreteactions to go further
The leader of Projet Montréal reiterated that his vision as mayor of the 514 is based on a simple idea: to allow those who love their city and their neighborhood to stay there. A city that protects and cares for everyone, from strollers to walkers.
In the next term, Projet Montréal is committed to going further with a series of new measures to protect tenants and improve housing safety:
- Tax vacant housing so that it returns to the rental market (which would generate $21 million in revenue over three years);
- Increasing fines for unsanitary conditions ($300,000/year in revenue);
- Creating a support program for tenants evicted by the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL);
- Increasing municipal interventions against negligent landlords;
- Establish a rent assistance fund that could provide microloans to households in difficulty to help them overcome their problems (at a cost of $5 million per year);
- Support housing committees ($500,000 per year).
All of these measures are already included in the party's financial framework presented last week.
“I think Montrealers prefer a city that thinks about its tenants rather than a city that thinks about its developers. We want to build more, that's for sure, but we also need to be able to protect people at risk in existing housing,” said Luc Rabouin.
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Source :
Simon Charron
Attaché de presse du chef
Projet Montréal
