Tashi Farmilo
LJI Reporter

During a plenary committee meeting on April 8, Gatineau’s municipal leaders confronted
mounting financial gap that is threatening the city’s ability to meet its affordable housing goals
for 2025. With a shortfall nearing $10 million, council members and officials debated urgent
measures to sustain momentum on dozens of housing projects already in the pipeline.

City staff presented a detailed overview of the funding crisis, pointing to rising construction
costs, shifting provincial frameworks such as AccèsLogis and the Programme d’habitation
abordable Québec (PHAQ), and a persistent lack of predictability that complicates financial
planning. Several major projects, including the much-anticipated “Habité chez soi,” now face
unexpected shortfalls after previously anticipated provincial contributions failed to materialize.

Commenting on the situation, Eliane Dubois of the Office d’habitation de l’Outaouais stressed
that the crisis extends beyond funding formulas and bureaucratic delays. “The most critical
issue is the rapid disappearance of deeply affordable housing—the kind someone earning
minimum wage can afford,” she said. “These units can’t be rebuilt, not even with subsidies. They
only exist in the aging housing stock, and once they’re gone, people are left with no viable
alternatives.” She added that the loss of these units often triggers a cascade of instability:
“When someone loses that kind of housing, it’s not just a move—it’s a risk of immediate
homelessness, and the system has very few emergency resources to absorb that.”

Municipal councillor Daniel Champagne of the Versant district, who chairs the Comité-Choc on
housing, emphasized the urgent need for coordinated action and long-term solutions. “We must
continue working with the Comité-Choc, which brings together all the key housing players. This
model has allowed us to move social housing projects forward more rapidly and effectively,” he
said. Champagne noted that while some progress has been made, the market’s deepening
inequality remains stark. “The vacancy rate for units over $1,500 a month is 4.7%. But for
anything below $1,250, it plunges to between 0.1 and 0.3%. That’s where the crisis lives. That’s
who we’re failing if we don’t act.”

To address the shortfall, council approved a plan to redirect funds from the delayed Val-Tétreau
redevelopment project, which is now expected to begin construction no earlier than 2027. While
some officials acknowledged the strain on municipal finances, others described the situation as
a sign of how far the city has come. “This is a good problem to have,” Champagne said. “It
means we’ve done the groundwork, we have serious projects ready to go—we just need to
match that momentum with funding. The response to homelessness is affordable housing. We
have a legislative obligation to deliver, and we must act.”

Photo: Gatineau is facing a severe shortage of affordable homes, with vacancy rates for low-
cost rentals hovering near zero and growing numbers of residents unable to find housing within
their means. (TF) Photo: Tashi Farmilo