By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

Two local nonprofits confronting the housing crisis in Brome-Missisiquoi held a free film screening and round-table discussion at the Princess Cinema in Cowansville on Monday evening to talk about creative ways to make housing more affordable.

The Table de logement de Brome-Missisquoi and Sutton-based Territoires Solidaires presented the documentary Le Dernier Flip, produced by Territoires Solidaires cofounder Samuel Gervais, and hosted a roundtable discussion with Gervais and Table du logement spokesperson Cédric Champagne.

In the film, Gervais, the executive director and cofounder of Territoires Solidaires, and coproducers Diane Bérard and Mathieu Vachon travel to Vermont to meet U.S. Senator and former Burlington, Vt. mayor Bernie Sanders and explore different ways of taking property off the speculative real estate market, notably community land trusts (CLTs), which Sanders backed during his time as mayor. A CLT is a nonprofit which holds land on behalf of a community and ensures its management; a CLT can encompass and collaborate with a housing co-op. “It’s a model coming from the States to make housing more affordable and accessible,” Gervais said.

Territoires Solidaires is currently working on two CLT pilot projects in Sutton, one on Western St. and one on the former vineyard now known as the Terrain du Vieux-Verger; Gervais said the organization is also looking into a possible project in Abercorn. Gervais said his organization’s “mission” is to create and manage CLTs around the region, keeping at least some housing affordable amid skyrocketing property resale values. 

Gervais said he and his colleagues wanted to make the CLT model, which is already used in the Montreal area and elsewhere in the country, better known around Quebec. “We’re not building on something completely new. We’re building on something that has decades of existence, huge impacts in the US, where it started, but now across the world, so we feel lucky to be part of that movement,” he said. Co-ops, CLTs and social utility trusts are complementary to each other and are different ways of “decommodifying real estate,” Gervais said.

In light of the Sutton pilot projects and of other initiatives which Territoires Solidaires is hoping to launch around Brome-Missisquoi, Gervais said he hopes the documentary screening will get people talking.