---Affordable housing in Gatineau: New administrators heading stakeholders’ board
Taking a step towards making housing more accessible, Gatineau officials announced a list of members from community organizations who will represent the Partners Roundtable – Table des partenaires – for its affordable housing inclusion plan. According to a press release issued by the city on May 11, the plan was ratified during municipal council’s meeting held the following day. It explained that the city launched the Partners Roundtable in March as a means of implementing an official affordable housing inclusiveness framework.
The group’s members will be the following: Nicola Brisson from L’Association des professionels de la construction et de l’habitation au Québec, Éric Tremblay and Raphaël Déry from technical resource groups, Alexandre Héroux from L’Office d’habitation de l’Outaouais, Anne Robinson from Habitations de l’Outaouais Métropolitain, Olivier Tremblay, a local project promoter, Christian Rheault a local architect with experience in affordable housing development projects, Stefan Psenak from the Gatineau Chamber of Commerce, Normand Bélanger, a local promoter, Dr. Marcelle Kafka from public health, and Mathieu Charron for research.
Back on March 16, the city named five elected officials who will be part of the committee, including Plateau district councillor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette, as President, Masson-Angers district councillor Marc Carrière as Vice-president, Manoir-des-Trembles-Val-Tétreau district councillor Jocelyn Blondin, Aylmer district councillor Audrey Bureau, and Rivière Blanche district councillor Jean Lessard. Its mandate will be to help the city create a framework and a regulation dedicated to including affordable housing in future residential development projects; to benefit local contractors by hiring them to contribute to bolstering Gatineau’s affordable housing stock; and to help find solutions to optimize the framework and the regulation.
The Partners Roundtable is expected to be active until the city approves the official regulation to include affordable housing in future residential development projects. Serving a solely consultative role, the city says the roundtable is not responsible for providing recommendations. Stating that the city has been in serious need of much improved affordable housing access for several years – which has been amplified by the ongoing housing crisis, rises in real estate prices, and a series of relatively recent natural disasters - Plateau district councillor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette said it’s time for Gatineau to take action. “The implementation of an affordable housing inclusion regulation in privately initiated residential projects will contribute to a perennial augmentation of affordable housing in Gatineau, to allow everyone to have access to housing that responds to their needs,” Marquis-Bissonnette said in the press release.
