22 octobre 2019
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Julien Simard, « La précarité résidentielle chez les locataires vieillissantes à faible revenu. Vieillir et se loger en contexte de gentrification à Montréal. », HAL-SHS : géographie, ID : 10670/1.9jyg4c
This thesis examines how low-income aging tenants living in a gentrification context in Montreal experience situations of housing precarity. In Quebec, the topic of aging in place has recently taken on increasing media and political importance in the wake of the adoption of article 1959.1, protecting some people aged 70 and over against evictions and repossession. However, it must be noted that the ability of seniors to stay put in inner-city neighbourhoods is now being jeopardized by various urban transformations such as gentrification. Although several studies in urban social gerontology document the experience of indirect displacement among aging populations in several cities around the world, the effects of gentrification on the housing situations of aging tenants are less known to researchers and policymakers alike. This qualitative research, based on a 2-year fieldwork as well as 31 semi-directed interviews with housing committee workers (n=13) and ageing tenants (n=18), aims to give a voice to aging people themselves, the vast majority of whom are women. The concept of housing precarity, defined as a continuum of situations that produce uncertain, inadequate or unaffordable occupancy is divided into four categories: security of tenure, direct threat, indirect threat and eviction. The research focused mainly on the effects of the rental relationship between aging landlords and tenants on the ability of the latter to stay put. Indeed, in gentrifying neighborhoods, some landlords are keen to displace aging tenants, who generally pay rents that are lower than market prices due to a long length of occupation. Finally, since these aging tenants were all recruited through various housing committees, the research also focused on documenting the outlines of their participation in these autonomous community organizations whose mission is to defend tenants' rights. Current gerontological policies, putting a strong emphasis on aging-in-place, must take greater account of the prevalence of housing precarity among low-income older tenants.