Name: 對有關魁北克住房危機的 7 種常見說法進行事實核查 (Fact-checking 7 common claims about Quebec's housing crisis)
Uploaded: 2024-09-05T20:55:59.000Z
Duration: 11 min 27 s

I'm Erika Morris, and I've done a lot of reporting on Quebec's housing crisis.

我是 Erika Morris，我做過很多關於魁北克住房危機的報道。

Let's fact-check some of the claims made about it.

讓我們來核實一下有關它的一些說法。

There's just way more people than there are homes.

Fact! Over the last 20 years, the number of homes built was actually higher than the amount of new households, and that includes newcomers.

事實！在過去的 20 年裡，住宅的建造數量實際上高於新家庭的數量，這其中也包括新移民。

But why did rent still jump across the whole province over the last four years?

但是，為什麼在過去四年裡，全省的房租仍然在飆升呢？

In Montreal, rent went up by 27%, and that's the lowest of any city in Quebec.

在蒙特利爾，房租上漲了 27%，是魁北克所有城市中漲幅最低的。

Quebec's construction association says here's why.

魁北克建築協會認為，原因就在這裡。

They're busy building condos, and small ones in particular.

他們正忙著建造公寓，尤其是小型公寓。

What's missing? Affordable units that can house larger families and more social housing.

缺少什麼？能容納大家庭的經濟適用房和更多的社會住房。

So the problem isn't necessarily how much we're building, but what we're building.

是以，問題不一定在於我們建造了多少，而在於我們建造了什麼。

Experts say we're not going to get out of this affordability crisis when what's being built isn't necessarily what's needed, and it's out of many people's budgets.

專家們說，如果正在建造的不一定是所需的，而且超出了許多人的預算，我們就無法擺脫負擔能力危機。

Social housing and affordable housing are equally helpful.

社會住房和經濟適用房同樣有幫助。

One is far more impactful than the other.

Social housing is owned by the province, and rent is based on a portion of a tenant's income.

社會住房歸省政府所有，租金根據租戶的部分收入計算。

Right now, there are about 16,000 households on a waitlist for social housing in Montreal alone.

目前，僅在蒙特利爾就有約 16,000 戶家庭在等待入住社會住房。

Affordable housing is based on market value and isn't necessarily affordable to the average person.

經濟適用房以市場價值為基礎，一般人不一定買得起。

Let's say the average 4.5 costs $2,000 a month.

比方說，4.5 的月平均費用為 2000 美元。

Then $1,500 might be considered affordable.

那麼，1 500 美元可能還算可以承受。

Just a few years ago, $1,500 in rent would have been the average price, or even expensive.

就在幾年前，1,500 美元的租金還是平均價格，甚至還很貴。

That's why advocates don't want the government to lump social and affordable housing funds together and are pushing for more social housing.

這就是為什麼倡導者不希望政府將社會住房基金和經濟適用房基金混為一談，並推動建設更多社會住房的原因。

Since 2018, the government has funded 23,000 units of social and affordable housing without distinguishing the two.

自 2018 年以來，政府不加區分地資助了 2.3 萬套社會住房和經濟適用房。

The Société d'Habitation du Québec, which manages social housing funds, says the units should be built by 2028.

負責管理社會住房基金的魁北克住房公司（Société d'Habitation du Québec）表示，這些單元應在 2028 年之前建成。

But it couldn't confirm how many of those units will actually be social housing.

但它無法確認其中有多少單元實際上是社會住房。

Local organizations need to apply for subsidies to make that happen.

地方組織需要申請補貼才能實現這一目標。

We've heard this claim over and over again.

這種說法我們聽了一遍又一遍。

The housing crisis is caused by high immigration numbers.

住房危機是由大量移民造成的。

Yes, Québec did see a large increase in its population last year.

是的，去年魁北克省的人口確實大幅增長。

But there was already a housing crisis before Québec took in those 270,000 temporary immigrants.

但在魁北克省接納這 27 萬臨時移民之前，住房危機就已經存在了。

Let's take Québec's North Shore, where virtually no immigrants settled last year.

就拿去年幾乎沒有移民定居的魁北克北岸來說吧。

Since 2020, rent still went up by 31% for available units there.

自 2020 年以來，該地區的房租仍然上漲了 31%。

Remember in the middle of the pandemic, when all immigration halted?

還記得在大流行病期間，所有移民都停止入境了嗎？

All over the province, the vacancy rate still went down while rents skyrocketed, even though we weren't letting anyone new in.

在全省範圍內，儘管我們沒有讓新的人進來，但空置率仍在下降，而租金卻在飆升。

Recent reports even show that over the last 20 years, there were still more housing starts than there were new households.

最近的報告甚至顯示，在過去的 20 年裡，新開工的住房數量仍然多於新增的家庭數量。

Lease transfers were intended to let a tenant out of their lease consequence-free by passing it over to a new tenant.

租約轉讓的目的是通過將租約轉給新租戶，讓租戶無後顧之憂地解除租約。

This was seen as being a good thing for both parties, since landlords would keep getting rent payments without having to find a new tenant themselves.

這被認為對雙方都有好處，因為房東可以繼續收到房租，而無需自己尋找新的租戶。

In Québec, it used to be that landlords couldn't refuse a lease transfer unless they had serious concerns that the new tenant couldn't pay.

在魁北克省，過去房東不能拒絕租約轉讓，除非他們嚴重擔心新租戶無法支付租金。

That changed when Bill 31 was passed into law.

第 31 號法案通過成為法律後，情況發生了變化。

Landlords complained that they didn't have enough control over their tenants, while tenants claimed that lease transfers were an important tool to keep rents low.

房東抱怨他們對租戶沒有足夠的控制權，而租戶則聲稱租約轉讓是壓低租金的重要手段。

A lot of landlords realized that they could make a lot of profit from keeping their unit empty for a while and then hiking up the rent as much as they want when a new tenant moves in, getting away from the yearly increases recommended by the rental board.

很多房東意識到，他們可以通過讓自己的單元空置一段時間，然後在新租客入住時隨意提高租金，從而擺脫租房委員會建議的年度漲幅，從而賺取大量利潤。

但租約的 G 部分又是怎麼回事呢？

Landlords have to disclose the lowest rent paid in the last 12 months, allowing the tenant to negotiate the new rent or contest it at the rental board.

房東必須公佈過去 12 個月內支付的最低租金，以便租戶就新租金進行協商或向租房委員會提出異議。

But if the unit was empty that whole year, it won't apply, and some landlords simply don't fill out Section G in the hopes that the new tenant won't notice.

但如果該單元整年都空著，就不適用了，有些房東干脆不填寫 G 部分，希望新租客不會注意到。

那麼，租賃轉讓是否過度了呢？

But generally speaking, it'll be much harder.

Short-term rentals are eating up the housing supply.

If you've been following the housing crisis, you'll remember the outrage caused by short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.

如果您一直在關注住房危機，就會記得 Airbnb 等短租平臺引起的憤怒。

While some owners use the platform to rent out their own place for short-term stays, landlords also saw the opportunity to make big profit.

一些房主利用該平臺出租自己的房子進行短期住宿，房東們也看到了賺大錢的機會。

We've covered many stories of tenants who are rent evicted or pushed out by owners who effectively turn the building into hotels.

我們報道過很多租戶被業主趕出或趕走的故事，他們實際上是把大樓變成了酒店。

After all, if you can choose between renting to a tenant for $1,200 a month or making $4,000 a month off short-term rentals, sounds tempting.

畢竟，如果你可以選擇以每月 1200 美元的價格租給租客，或者以每月 4000 美元的價格租給短期租客，這聽起來很誘人。

That's when housing experts say they saw a surge in evictions from properties that ended up as short-term rentals.

住房專家說，就在那時，他們發現從最終成為短期出租房的房產中驅逐房客的情況激增。

When tourism halted during lockdowns, a lot of those units were actually put back on the rental market.

當旅遊業在封鎖期間停止時，這些組織、部門中的很多實際上又重新回到了租賃市場。

Now tourism has rebounded and the trend is reversing again.

現在，旅遊業已經反彈，趨勢再次逆轉。

But this time, Quebec has way more restrictions in place.

但這一次，魁北克省設置了更多的限制。

In most of Montreal's boroughs, you can only put your primary residence on platforms like Airbnb, with very few exceptions.

在蒙特利爾的大多數區，您只能將主要住所放在 Airbnb 等平臺上，只有極少數例外。

Owners, including landlords, have to register with the province and must include the registration number on the listing or face fines up to $50,000.

包括房東在內的業主必須在該省註冊，並且必須在房源上註明註冊號，否則將面臨最高 5 萬美元的罰款。

Of course, there are people who get around the rules and enforcement has been tricky.

當然，也有人繞過規則，執行起來也很棘手。

So are short-term rentals to blame for the housing crisis?

那麼，住房危機是短租房造成的嗎？

Evictions are the number one reason people end up homeless in Quebec.

在魁北克，驅逐是導致人們無家可歸的首要原因。

The vacancy rate is abysmal and there aren't enough large units fit for families.

空置率極低，適合家庭居住的大單元房也不夠多。

Turning housing units into short-term rentals contributes to that squeeze.

將住房單元變成短期出租房加劇了這種擠壓。

Barcelona and New York have outright banned short-term rentals.

巴塞羅那和紐約已經徹底禁止短租。

Experts believe Montreal doesn't need to go that far.

專家認為蒙特利爾不需要走那麼遠。

Home sharing can be good, but they believe that running a short-term rental as a business should be banned.

房屋共享可以是好事，但他們認為，應禁止將短期出租作為一項業務來經營。

Claim number six is just too expensive for governments to solve the problem.

第六種說法是政府解決問題的成本太高。

Experts say that kind of thinking is short-sighted and doesn't consider the ripple effects when there isn't enough social housing.

專家們說，這種想法是短視的，沒有考慮到社會住房不足所帶來的連鎖反應。

Just delivering emergency services to someone is very costly.

僅僅是為某人提供緊急服務，成本就非常高昂。

如果有人被監禁，代價就非常高昂。

If they're in the hospital, even more costly.

如果是在醫院，費用就更高了。

所有這些都是通過稅收支付的。

Eventually, those who complain about high taxes will have to pay more to healthcare systems, policing, and so on.

最終，那些抱怨高稅收的人將不得不為醫療系統、治安等支付更多費用。

When you take all those factors into account and add up all the costs that fall on taxpayers anyway, government housing can prove more cost-effective and offer people more dignity.

如果把所有這些因素都考慮在內，再把納稅人承擔的所有費用加在一起，政府住房就會被證明更具成本效益，而且能給人們帶來更多尊嚴。

Not to mention, research shows that when there's a lack of social housing, there's more competition for the few affordable units out there and that creates pressure on the whole housing market.

更不用說，研究表明，如果缺乏社會福利住房，就會有更多的人爭搶為數不多的經濟適用房，從而對整個住房市場造成壓力。

It's like the trickle-down effect in reverse.

The simplest way to solve this really is for the government to say it's not realistic for people who are under a certain income level to look for housing in the private rental market.

要解決這個問題，最簡單的辦法其實就是政府說，收入低於一定水準的人在私人租賃市場上找房是不現實的。

We'll make sure there's enough of it out there.

The federal government used to ease the lack of affordable units with social housing and that's the case for many countries.

聯邦政府曾經通過社會住房來緩解經濟適用房不足的問題，許多國家都是如此。

But Canada's been disinvesting for decades and provinces aren't always keen on filling that gap.

但幾十年來，加拿大一直在減少投資，而各省並不總是熱衷於填補這一缺口。

Quebec axed its social housing fund two years ago.

兩年前，魁北克省取消了社會住房基金。

It created a new fund that lumps together market and social housing.

它創建了一個新基金，將市場住房和社會住房混為一談。