La des Office municipalR d’habitation dese Montréal Tenant Newsletter ventsDecember 2014 • Volume 13 • No 2 PUBLIC HOUSING OF THE FUTURE Habitations Habitations Quesnel Coursol II Parc Royal Condition of the housing stock Our team of building specialists has been working for you for 10 years! Page 3 Interview with Marie-Claude Savard Page 5 La Rose des vents is also available at www.omhm.qc.ca under News and Publications Message from the Director Toward the public housing of the future Dear Tenants, preceding decades. These financial needs to the various levels investments have borne fruit. You of government and request a RAM 2014 is drawing to a close, and the no doubt noticed, on the cover page budget (renovations, improvements OMHM has drawn up a favourable of this edition of La Rose des Vents, and modernization) of $125 million report on this year’s achievements, the spectacular transformations of each year. For now, we are getting especially with regard to the major buildings in different boroughs. about 60% of this amount on renovation work done on our low- These make-overs are not just in average. rent housing. It has been 10 years the exterior envelopes but also Denis Quirion already since the OMHM stepped inside the buildings, and they Our team of building specialists in Executive Director forward to suggest that our partners include upgrades to electrical the Condition of the Housing Stock, of the OMHM invest in the creation of a condition systems, fire alarm systems and which is featured on page 3, is overview for its property inventory. elevators. Several courtyards and continuing its inspections and And so a team of five experts was properties have also been preventive visits to buildings and put together to evaluate the landscaped, with flowers and units to make sure you have a safe, condition of the low-rent housing greenery, to spruce up the healthy place to live. Other major stock and develop a portrait of it. By environment. These improvements renovation work is on the way. The 2008, this report had helped triple benefit the low-rent housing OMHM plans to continue to hold the budget dedicated to renovation residents as well as all Montrealers, information and consultation work on low-rent housing in because they significantly improve meetings with you. Together we are Montréal, which really needed it! quality of life and help revitalize building the low-rent housing of neighbourhoods. tomorrow. Since then, our main concern has been to obtain adequate funding for While lots has been done, there is I want to take this opportunity to the renovation of our some 21,000 still a lot left to do, as you well know. wish you a wonderful 2015, full of low-rent housing units. In seven It is important to plan major inspiring plans and projects! years, $525M has been invested by renovation budgets over several the Société d’habitation du Québec, years, to avoid cost overruns, to the Canada Mortgage and Housing plan the work effectively and to Corporation and the Montréal urban minimize their impact on tenants. community, to partly make up for The OMHM makes the most of all the deficit accumulated over the available platforms to reiterate its Rep Rap Participation is the key! Last summer, I had the good fortune of their subsector and sector, where It was with this in mind – helping to be invited by a few tenant their representatives have the right residents make themselves heard associations to community meals in to speak. – that I participated in the creation low-rent housing for seniors. In my of a provisional CCR for housing in discussions with the residents, I Involvement at the local level is the Logement abordable Québec realized that few of them know vital. The entire participation (LAQ) program and other social where to go to ask questions or structure begins there, and then housing. I hope that community speak about their concerns. They do goes to the Advisory Committee of action will also flourish in these Francine Cayer not know about the local resources Tenants (CCR) and from there all the environments. Tenant OMHM that have been set up to meet their way to the Board of Directors, Board Member needs. though your representatives, I am always ready to talk to you Ms. Vallières and me. That’s why I about these issues in greater depth. And yet these resources are near at encourage you to take part in the Please feel free to ask your hand. For questions related to community life of your housing community organizer to invite me to community life in their housing complex, to create or support your your sector. It would be my pleasure complex, the residents can go to association and to speak up at to help you speak out or to pass on their tenant association or, if they sector and subsector meetings. your message for you. In the don’t have one, to their community This is the only way we can develop meantime, I wish you a wonderful organizer. Problems related to the a “good neighbour“ culture among holiday season and a new year filled management of their housing tenants and between tenants and with opportunities for participation. complex are discussed at meetings OMHM employees. 2 LA ROSE DES VENTS | December 2014 Major Projects Condition of the Housing Stock At your service for 10 years! By Patrick Préville This year, the team in the Condition of the Housing Stock is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Read on to meet this committed and engaged team, who firmly believe they are working for a worthy cause: your wellbeing! This team of building specialists was set up in 2004 to develop a condition overview for Montréal’s low-rent housing stock. Today, it essentially has a dual role: reporting on the condition of the buildings and carrying out preventive inspections on individual units. It is also responsible for inspecting the facades of residence towers for the delivery of safety certificates. The team has developed Do you recognize any of the members of the preventive inspection team? They visit around 8,000 units effective data collection tools and honed its each year. (Left to right) Sylvain Turcotte, Michel Prévost, Patrick Edsell, Yves Trudel, Alejandro Pinillos expertise, making the OMHM a pioneer and and Louis Philippe Riopelle benchmark for other housing offices in Your cooperation is important Québec and establishing a reputation as far every room of your home to inspect the The way you respond to these preventive away as Belgium. components listed in the form. Every component (for example, windows, faucets, maintenance visits helps the OMHM employees do their task to the best of their The role of the team members is not to carry thermostat, water heater) is evaluated using ability. “From the very beginning, the out the work but to provide the OMHM with specific criteria to determine whether it is in tenants’ cooperation has facilitated the complete information about the condition of good condition or needs repairs or inspections. They’re like the eyes of the the housing stock. Thanks to their work, maintenance. OMHM. When they point out problems informed decisions can be made to carry out during an inspection, it really helps us do our maintenance and repair work, and to plan The leading-edge technology used by the job thoroughly,“ explained Sylvain Turcotte. major work on certain buildings. OMHM automatically generates work orders, based on the level of urgency. “Our team has the tenants’ wellbeing at Intervention is deemed urgent if your health heart, and that means ensuring they have a or safety is threatened, or if the problem safe and healthy place to live,“ declared detected is damaging the building as a Sylvain Turcotte, who has been the director whole. of the Condition of the Housing Stock since its creation. Preventive inspections OMHM CONDITION OVERVIEW GALVANIZED THE PUBLIC HOUSE OF THE FUTURE With a goal of inspecting 8,000 units each The completion of the first OMHM condition overview was instrumental in adding year, the team has examined some 80,000 social housing upgrades to the Programme québécois des infrastructures. The goal dwellings since its creation in 2004. So there of this investment program, which was launched in 2007 by the Québec government, is a very good chance you have been visited is to upgrade, restore and preserve public infrastructure. The OMHM’s RAM budget by an inspector during this time. What (renovation, improvement and modernization) was considerably expanded to carry exactly do the inspectors do when they out makeovers on the low-rent housing stock, which was in great need of it. Major visit? renovation work undertaken in recently years is helping build the low-rent housing of tomorrow. First, they take note of any problem that could compromise your health, safety or comfort. With an electronic tablet, they tour LA ROSE DES VENTS | December 2014 3 Rep Rap Even greater cooperation It has been several years already so that the discussions are egali- I definitely have the impression since I became a tenant represen- tarian and the tenants feel they that the winds of participation are tative with the Office municipal can contribute to finding solutions blowing on Montréal’s low-rent d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM). for problems. housing and that they’re bringing This year more than ever I have improvement and beautification seen amazing improvements in Likewise, the consultations about along with them. At latest count, discussions between tenants and OMHM services and the report on the Flower and Garden Club had Nicole Vallières the OMHM – we are moving the strategic plan allowed the 600 members, which shows how Tenant OMHM toward true partnership.