Valrie Plante welcomes social housing deal, but pandemic has heightened the demand

MontrealMayor Valrie Plantewelcomed a deal between Quebec and Ottawa to financesocial housing, with the city facing ever more glaring needs as it prepares for winter during the pandemic.

Plante said the number of homeless has jumped, by roughly double, to 6,000in the past six months.Overall, she said, 150,000 households are waiting for adequate and affordable housing.

A small homeless camp remains in the shadow of downtown, on a strip of green space alongside Notre-Dame Street East.

"The needs here are huge," Plantesaid at a news conference Friday, which was originally called to put pressure on the federal and provincial government to finally come to an agreement.

She was joined in Montreal byQuebec City Mayor Rgis LabeaumeandGatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin.

Late Thursday, only hours before the news conference, the two sides announced a tentative dealhad been reached over control of $1.4 billion in social housing funding for the province.

Even if the deal is ratified, though, Plante said it usually takes five years for a project to come to fruition. Affordable housing was a centrepiece of her election plaform in 2017.

But she said her administration has been hampered by a lack of funding from other levels of government.

"This agreement is good news, so we can tell our different partners: ok, you can come up with projects," she said.

Quebec City Mayor Rgis Labeaumesaid he's anxious to move forward with more projects that will benefit "vulnerable clienteles such as the homeless, young people leaving youth protection services and people living with a disability."