Legault Government to Allow Rent Increases in Private Seniors' Residences
A draft regulation was submitted to the Quebec Cabinet in January to allow owners of private seniors' residences (RPAs) that provide nursing or other services to raise rents. The regulation was published in the January 25 issue of the Gazette officielle, the official newspaper of the Government of Quebec. The government can adopt it 45 days after the date of publication.
The proposed regulation calls for a an increase to rents in RPAs based on "a percentage applicable to service charges that relate to the individual tenant," said to take into account annual inflation in the cost of services provided to residents. This increase would be in addition to rental increases that apply to all rental housing. Services that seniors in RPAs can opt to receive include: meals; domestic help; personal assistance (getting dressed, hygiene, medication); recreational activities; nursing care. The cost of these services is added to the rent and specified in the lease. The average rent an RPAs in Quebec in 2022 was $1,722 for a single room, $1,515 for a studio; and $1,820 for a single bedroom apartment, according to the website logisretraite.com. None of these figures include service fees, which vary from place to place.
Currently, the Administrative Housing Tribunal's (TAL) calculation for recommended rent increases is the same for seniors' residences and traditional rental housing. For example, the TAL's rent increase recommendations for 2023 are: 2.3 per cent for leases that do not include heating; 2.8 per cent for leases that include electric heating; 4.5 for leases with gas heating; and 7.3 for leases that include the use of heating oil. Activists for the right to housing say landlords rarely respect the TAL's recommendations, while the Quebec landlord's association has said the tribunal's recommendations are not high enough.
Since January 2021, more than 300 RPAs have closed in Quebec, a number that continues to grow, in a context where many seniors' residences are struggling to make ends meet. More than 18 per cent of Quebeckers over 75 years of age live in an RPA, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
During the first session of the National Assembly on January 31, France-Elaine Duranceau, Minister responsible for Housing, declared: "This measure was intended to help RPAs. As you know, in the last five years, 400 RPAs have closed, or close to it. So this is a measure to help RPAs.
"I think we have to be careful not to scare seniors with this measure. It is a very technical measure, which aims to calculate the rent that can be charged in RPAs. There is an indexation of the rent that will be for the services portion. We are changing the index that is used for an index that is for human services. We want to reflect the costs that RPAs incur. That's the landlord side, if you will."
The pandemic brought into stark relief the crisis in the health care system, in seniors' residences and in the care our seniors are entitled to receive. The consequences of the progressive disinvestment imposed for years by neo-liberal governments with the pay-the-rich schemes are seen in every sphere.
Today, the government is continuing in the same direction, dehumanizing the situation of seniors and reducing the matter to a question of increases to allow RPAs to cope with the rising cost of living.
New arrangements with a vision for the well-being of our seniors are needed.
This article was published in
Number 3 - February
15, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10033.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca