Limits and challenges in the use of housing coops as a state housing policies
As part of the overhaul of the powers of cities undertaken by the Quebec provincial government, the city of Montreal was granted in 2016 the status of metropolis and transferred specific responsibilities in housing, including the administration of the budget envelopes dedicated to the realization of new social and community housing units. A In light of this historical paradigm shift which gives the municipal administration the possibility of acquiring tools for planning, orienting and building its social housing stock, this article focuses on housing cooperatives. as a privileged tool in Montreal for the past 20 years. It proposes to analyze the operation of a cooperative as a form of subcontracting of the State, while the latter entrusts the responsibility of providing and managing affordable housing for low and modest income households to these same households. To better understand how the member-tenants involved in the governance of their project experience the limits of this self-management, we will present the results of 11 individual interviews carried out in winter 2019 with members or former members of the board of directors of 11 different housing cooperatives. These allow us to draw up a lukewarm assessment comprising several criticisms of the inadequacy of government action to offer effective programs, but also of the limits and challenges of the cooperative model. This is accompanied by several paradoxes, especially in the selection of members and their involvement in the project they inhabit. Thus, empowerment, collective responsibility and democratic management appear to respondents more as ideals to be achieved than a reality that transcends everyday.