When Aka Jean Boris Yao moved to the Pontiac in 2023, he thought he would have a place to call home.
The Ivory Coast native had seen photos of his new apartment — it looked clean, and seemed like it was going to be a great home base as he started his new journey as a teacher.
But when he got there, the apartment wasn’t as advertised. It was dirty, and smelled of cigarette smoke.
“It wasn’t in a good state,” he said, adding that he felt misled.
He spent a few weeks looking for another place to live, staying in a hotel temporarily while he searched for a more permanent place to call home. Now, his basement apartment in Davidson has everything he needs — affordable rent, his own kitchen and an area to welcome guests.
He’s happy where he is now, but he knows he’s not the only one having trouble finding a place to live.
Other newcomers to the region are also seeing a lack of living options in the Pontiac.
“They don’t have anywhere to stay,” he said in a French interview. “Where are they going to stay? That’s the problem.”
A new initiative put on by the MRC Pontiac and the Carrefour Jeunesse-emploi Pontiac is hoping to fix that problem, by setting newcomers up with temporary shelter.
The two organizations announced last week they are partnering to launch a new housing program that will match people who are hoping to move or have just moved to the area with Pontiac residents who will rent them a room in their private home on a temporary basis.
Rachel Soar-Flandé, the MRC’s economic director in charge of housing and the project lead, said the program is meant to address short-term housing needs for newcomers to the region, be they from outside Canada or within it.
“We have a problem when we have newcomers, where they’ve got a week, two weeks to find somewhere to stay,” she said, adding that with the current shortage it’s hard to find housing, especially under a time crunch.
She said the program will benefit both the newcomers, giving them somewhere to stay and feel welcome in the Pontiac, as well as the hosts, who will be able to collect some extra income and meet new people.
“They [can] participate in exchange of knowledge and experience with other people,” she said.
Both prospective hosts and prospective guests will submit application forms to the MRC including basic details such as lifestyle, habits, and experience living with roommates. Application forms allow hosts and guests to select preferences about monthly rent, level of involvement in household chores and activities, and length of stay.
Soar-Flandé said the goal is to accumulate a list of prospective hosts, so when a newcomer expresses interest in moving here the MRC can quickly match them with a host.
She acknowledged that hosts and guests may not always turn out to be compatible, even after the screening process, and said if an issue came up they would troubleshoot and try to find a more suitable living arrangement.
“If it doesn’t work out with one person, then perhaps try to find another place where it could work out,” she said.
Soar-Flandé acknowledged the lack of permanent housing available in the Pontiac, and citing the price of construction materials and getting urban-focused developers to expand here as some of the challenges to increasing the housing supply.
But she is optimistic that once people come out of this short-term program they will be able to find a more permanent place to call home.
“There are building projects in place at the moment, there are renovation projects coming up. We obviously need more housing, but there is progress at the moment.”
Karim El Kerch is the director of the Carrefour Jeunesse-emploi du Pontiac, the local social service organization that helps newcomers like Yao integrate into Pontiac life, including finding a job and a place to live.
He said for years his organization has been helping bring people to the Pontiac through a program called Place aux Jeunes en région (A place for young people in the regions), helping young people find a job in specialized fields and getting them an apartment or other lodging.
He said they developed a program during the pandemic, in partnership with CISSSO, which set up newcomers with a temporary place to live.
“We had rooms, and we had a chalet at the Patro, that we offered to people arriving in the Pontiac for their first week,” he said in French, adding they also put people up in motels, hotels, or even their colleagues’ homes.
“We have been working on this file for a while now, and nowadays even more given the desperate need for housing that we are seeing.”
He believes the new initiative could help satisfy some of the housing demand for people who are moving to the region for work.
“It will allow new arrivals to get settled with residents of the Pontiac, it will allow them to create a connection and to have information about the region, [ . . . ] and at the same time they will feel welcomed by these people,” he said.
Yao said he thinks this program is a good idea.
“If people arrive here and they don’t know anyone, it will help them find shelter,” he said, adding that when he first arrived here he didn’t know anyone and would have liked to have someone to chat with.
“At first it is hard, and it is hard mentally as well.”
Soar-Flandé said the MRC is now accepting program applications from Pontiac residents interested in participating. The application form can be downloaded here, and once completed can be sent to r.soarflande@mrcpontiac.qc.ca.
