Unfortunately, The housing crisis is still charging along in 2025. Homelessness is on the rise; a study commissioned by Vivre en Ville has found that the number of tenants experiencing homelessness has increased by 50 percent between 2023 and 2024. Rents are on the rise as well. Between 2020 and 2024, average rents in Montréal went up by 27 percent, according to a report by RCLALQ.  What is the cause of this crisis?  Two journalists in Montreal want to find out, and they are conducting what might be “the largest investigation into the housing crisis” ever done in Canada….as far as they can tell.

Kalden Dhatsenpa – Local Journalism Initiative

Independent journalists Isaac Peltz and Gabrielle Brassard-Lecours, through their collaborative bilingual project, Duo/Duet, are investigating why the housing crisis has continued for so long. They have interviewed over 30 people, including policymakers and their research is going viral on social media. Gathering millions of engagements as some, perhaps jokingly, worry for their safety.

In fact, they think many members of the national assembly and parliament have vested interests in keeping this crisis going. Namely, they are landlords or own assets that make money off of the financialization of housing. The two say that the profits made from representatives participating in such business ventures preclude housing solutions that will affect those same profits. Brassard-Lecours points out that these politicians are “going to make [policies] for landlords and not renters.”