Developers aren't actually here to house us, and Montreal just proved why.

Montreal, QC: To create more affordable housing, the city passed a law similar to New York, Vancouver, and London. A certain amount of units built in each new development must meet the city criteria of "affordable," But Montreal made a fatal mistake. They allowed developers to opt out of providing said affordable housing by instead paying a fee to the city.

Since then, not a single developer has opted to build affordable housing.

Instead, they've paid the fee that would go to a city fund that would be used to create affordable housing in the city. But a second mistake was made by Montreal. The sum of all the developer's fees does not add up to enough to build even a single building of affordable units. The total fees paid were 24.5 Million, but experts say that is insufficient to create a development of affordable housing. So Montreal lost hundreds of potential affordable units across multiple developments and replaced them with a pool of money not large enough to create a single building.

Furthermore, five developments got around the fee by giving a parcel of land to the city. Here, Montreal made another mistake, one that other cities have made, by requiring land to be given or park space to be built as an option instead of affordable housing; the city directly incentivizes developers not to create affordable housing. Creating a park nearby or often adjacent to a development may loosely benefit the public but directly benefits the developer by increasing property value. By allowing this trade, cities like Montreal ask developers, "Do you want to create affordable housing or more profits?" We should not be shocked by developers' answers.

Like landlords, developers are not interested in housing anyone. Instead, they exist to capitalize off the fundamental human rights and need for shelter.

-J.A. Caza