Tenant Activism and the Demise of Urban Renewal: Tenants, Governance, and the Struggle for Recognition at Habitations Jeanne-Mance in Montreal

Abstract

How public housing tenant activism altered Canadian housing policy in the 1960s continues to be underresearched within urban renewal, Canadian Left, or North American housing studies. Organizing against local governance and the federal rental contract, their nationwide activism directly led to the Hellyer Report, which officially ended urban renewal in 1969. Situated within this period are the tenants of Habitations Jeanne-Mance (HJM) in Montreal. Contrasting the prevailing view of Canadian tenants being politically isolated, HJM tenants led movements against the rental contract, demanded tenant representation, and sought social rights for low-income people within the Montreal Left. As more representative of the Canadian experience in the 1960s, HJM demonstrates how tenant activism has shaped the history of housing in Canada.