With less than a week to go before July 1, 2,153 households were actively being assisted by a housing search service in Quebec, the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) reported Thursday—more than at the same time last year.
For Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for FRAPRU, this situation is concerning, especially as housing vacancy rates have risen in several areas.
“Housing units are being built, but they are so expensive that they are beyond the means of many tenants,” Laflamme emphasized.
“We have to remember that, for many, this is happening in the very next few days; for others, it will be a little later in July. But seeing such high numbers, even as the vacancy rate has risen, is very concerning for the future,” she added.
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At this time last year, 1,989 households were receiving active assistance in their search for housing. The number of households receiving “active” assistance includes those already in housing.
Laflamme pointed out that it is not only major urban centers that are affected by the housing crisis. In Montérégie, 407 households are currently receiving active assistance in finding housing, while 165 are receiving such assistance in Lanaudière and 166 in Mauricie, according to FRAPRU.
In Mauricie, “despite the rise in the vacancy rate (…), more tenants have sought assistance this year than last year,” Laflamme noted.
She highlighted the case of Trois-Rivières, where the vacancy rate tripled between 2024 and 2025 (rising from 0.9 to 2.7 per cent). “And despite that, there are many households that are actively being assisted in their search for housing,” said the FRAPRU spokesperson.
“So really everywhere, there are tenants facing situations of great insecurity because they haven’t found the housing they need.”
The Montreal region currently has 279 households receiving active support, according to FRAPRU’s survey.
The latest report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) indicates that the vacancy rate for rental housing was 2.9 per cent in the Montreal metropolitan area in 2025. In 2024, that figure was 2.1 per cent. CMHC noted, however, that despite this increase, “the most affordable units, meanwhile, remain in short supply.”
In the metropolitan area, the average rent for two-bedroom units was $1,346 in 2025, up 7.2 per cent.
FRAPRU also reports that 301 households are receiving active support in the Capitale-Nationale region.
In the Quebec City metropolitan area, the vacancy rate was 2.4 per cent, and the average rent for two-bedroom units was $1,277, up 6.1 per cent, according to CMHC’s 2025 report. In 2024, the vacancy rate in Quebec City was 0.9 per cent.
“This increase marks a slight easing of the market after a long period of historically low rates. Vacancy rates have risen in several areas of the region, including Basse-Ville, Les Rivières, and the South Shore,” reported CMHC.
“This housing crisis is a crisis of unaffordable housing,” argued Laflamme.
She maintained that it is “urgent that structural measures be put in place to address this housing unaffordability.” The FRAPRU spokesperson called on the various political parties in Quebec City to tackle this crisis, as an election campaign is set to take place this fall.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
