Groupe Mach and two other developers plan to develop 2,500 multi-residential units designed to reduce homelessness in Montreal.

The proposed affordable-housing project has an estimated cost of $600 million. Plans call for the investment to be financed by Desjardins, La Presse reported. But Desjardins told La Presse that its discussions with Mach are confidential “for the time being.” Other partners include developers Cogir and Groupe Devimco, along with the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ), the province’s housing agency. If all goes according to plan, SHQ will manage the property.

“It would have been easy to write a cheque [as a donation for a smaller project],” Vincent Chiara, Mach’s founder and president, told La Presse. “It doesn’t take energy, it doesn’t take time, it’s tax-deductible… but it’s a Band-Aid.”

He opted to develop a larger project after a homeless-support group asked him to finance one comprising 50 apartments.

“We have 5,000 homeless people in Montreal and we’re tackling the problem with 50 units,” he told La Presse. “That’s not going to make a difference. Building 50 units or 500 units … it’s the same amount of work.”

Mach and its partners want to develop the project on city-owned land. The city’s only obligation would be to donate the land, while the three developers do not plan to profit from the project; and, the Quebec government would be asked to maintain its sales-tax rebates, according to La Presse.

Each building would cost approximately $400 per square foot to build, compared to $900 psf for the 50-unit building that was initially proposed, Chiara told his interviewer.

“We could have bought condos at the Ritz-Carlton; it wouldn’t have been any more expensive,” he said in the interview.

“When the government gets involved in a project, the costs tend to skyrocket,” he added, without specifying a regime.

Chiara believes that a new segment of the homeless population not dealing with addictions or mental-health issues could be easier to rehouse than those who are experiencing such problems.

“These people were literally pushed out of their homes,” he told La Presse, referring to evictions due to unpaid rent. “It’s a situation we’re all responsible for, and one we could help resolve.”

The three developers are modelling their plan according to one that Mission Unitaînés Founder and Luc Maurice is deploy is deploying to develop large-scale social housing for seniors. Maurice is also the founder and execuctive president of Groupe Maurice, Under that formula, Maurice donates $500,000 for each building, while the land is provided by municipalities and the province subsidizes services, according to La Presse.

“And it works,” Chiara told his interviewer. “If it worked for seniors, it can work for vulnerable people.”

He envisions that SHQ would eventually own the project under a scenario similar to the seniors social-housing model. The province would only have to make annual mortgage payments of about $30 million for 50 years, and below-market rents would cover building-maintenance costs, he told La Presse.

Pictured: Montreal

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