Housing projects
Innovative and affordable housing for residents facing systemic discrimination in the rental market
We have two housing projects in development in Parc-Extension.
Our 31-unit social housing project on de l’Épée is currently under construction. We are also planning the rehabilitation of the Plaza Hutchison building into affordable housing and community spaces in collaboration with local actors.
Want to get involved or become a partner?
Send us an email at developpement@briqueparbrique.com
8600 de l’Épée avenue
About
8600 de l’Épée is a former Bétonel paint factory in front of Howard Park that we are currently converting into 31 social housing units, with the support of the City of Montreal, the ROMEL and HAPOPEX. With most of its units having at least two rooms, this project will respond directly to a need for affordable units for families in Parc-Extension.
Brique par brique also received the support of Comité d’action de Parc-Extension (CAPE) in various aspects, including preparing a list of applicants and organizing multiple mobilizations in the neighborhood to secure funding for the project.
Initiatives aimed at acquiring land which belong to the City of Montreal play an important role in defending the right to housing in the neighborhood, as these acquisitions facilitate the development of affordable community housing. This was the case with this project.
Partners
ROMEL
HAPOPEX
Comité d’action de Parc-Extension (CAPE)
Table de quartier de Parc-Extension
Timeline
The City of Montreal had previously bought the site in August 2019 for social housing purposes.
Through the AccèsLogis program, Brique par brique acquires the 8600-8618 avenue de l’Épée site to develop a community housing project in 2020.
However, the funding for this project was threatened by the provincial government’s decision to abandon the AccèsLogis program, which led us to mobilize with our community partners to highlight the urgent need for decent, affordable housing in Parc-Extension. We co-authored a letter published in Le Devoir on July 6, 2022 about the importance of the AccèsLogis program, and co-organized a rally with the Comité d’action de Parc-Extension (CAPE) on August 22, 2022 to demand that the provincial government recognizes its responsibilities when it comes to financing social housing.
Following this community pressure, the housing project was granted the necessary funding to keep advancing in early 2023.
Construction will begin at the end of 2024 or early 2025.
Supported by
AccèsLogis
City of Montreal
7300 Hutchison Street - Plaza Hutchison
About
This project aims to rehabilitate Plaza Hutchison into affordable housing and community spaces to serve the needs of Parc-Extension neighborhood. In particular, the project's approach based on larger housing typologies seeks to respond to the high concentration of intergenerational households in the wishing to live together. Doubly affected by real estate pressures, these households find themselves obliged to live in dwellings whose size is not adapted to the number of occupants.
Through the project, Brique par brique aims not only to offer affordable and accessible housing, but also a number of spaces available for rental for the neighborhood's associative life, services and local commerce.
In addition, the history of Plaza Hutchison reveals a particular social anchorage in the imagination of Parc-Extension, having been the object of a major citizen mobilization movement in recent years to prevent the construction of a high-priced housing project that ran counter to the essential needs of the local population. The desire to see this building rehabilitated to serve the neighborhood's residents and stakeholders is therefore a sentiment shared by many members of the community.
Illustrations by Catherine Juneau
Partners
Table de quartier de Parc-Extension
Connections Women’s group
Illustration by RaysideLabossière
Collages by Connections Women’s group at BxB
Timeline
2017: The new owner of Plaza Hutchison, who wants to turn the building into luxury apartments, deprives tenants (including community organizations) of water, electricity and heat in the middle of winter to force their departure.
Several community associations that provide services to the local population cease their operations or move out of the neighborhood
Brique par brique organizes a neighborhood popular assembly to contest the conversion project
2020: After 2 years of continuous citizen mobilization, the city of Montreal buys back the Plaza Hutchison building with its right of first refusal to transform it into social housing
The building remains vacant since then and no development project has been put forward by the city
Fall 2023: Brique par brique starts developing a vision for the rehabilitation of the Plaza into affordable housing and community spaces through participatory planning
Winter Spring 2024: Design engagement and consultative activities with diverse residents such as the Connections Women’s group
Summer 2024: Exhibition of the results of the exploratory design workshop at the local festival
Fall/Winter 2024: Funding research and more consultative activities to come to develop the project’s vision further
Supported by
Foundation of Greater Montreal - Collective Fund for Climate and Ecological Transition
Consultative and design activities exploring the site and housing typologies