The Participation of Ageing People in Tenants’ Associations in Montreal: Keeping Territorial Exclusion at Bay
The possibility of ageing on site, for a category of people of a certain age with low incomes, is weakened in some inner-city neighborhoods of Montreal. However, ageing people develop strategies and tactics to adjust themselves to urban transformations. In the precise context of this article, we will try to determine the outlines of ageing people’s social engagement within tenants’ associations, linking it to the housing insecurity they may experience. This article, based on preliminary results and analysis, digs on a total of 14 semi-directed interviews (half-conducted with community organizers, other half with ageing people participating in the activities of the associations), as well as several months of participant observation. Territorial exclusion, or the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of long-term tenants, is kept at bay through participation in the associations, because ageing tenants may have access to juridical, social and symbolic support. Public policies concerned with ageing in place must include the situation of ageing tenants in their action plans.