After the completion of the Woodnote in 2020, the Concordia Student Union is going ahead with plans for a second building
The Concordia Student Union (CSU) is moving forward with plans for a second affordable student housing unit, confirmed Laurent Levesque, CEO of UTILE, the housing non-profit that built the Woodnote. This new building will likely be finished by the end of 2025.
UTILE has said that this new unit could house roughly 144 students, or the same amount as the Woodnote. “We’re in the phase of the project where we collect objectives. The CSU is telling us the project parameters they want us to meet, and that will eventually be turned into a contract. This then becomes UTILE’s mandate for the building,” he said.
The Woodnote’s total cost was $18 million. Of that total, the CSU funded $1.8 million while $1.6 million came from the city of Montreal, and $3 million from the federal government, according to Levesque. For this second building, Levesque’s hope is to stay around the same budget. “We’re always trying to house as many students as possible without getting to a size that makes a feeling of community impossible to achieve. The realistic target is about the size of the Woodnote, and that goes for the budget too.” Levesque wishes that more funding from municipal, provincial, and federal governments would be allocated to fund this expansion.
The project is in its initial phase, so there are lots of details to work out. “We don’t have a name for it yet,” said Levesque. “The Woodnote’s name was chosen by students in part because of its design and location near Parc Lafontaine. We’ll get there [with this second building] once the land is found and the design starts to take shape. We’ll only do that once the CSU confirms that this project is something they want to do. We expect to be able to deliver the project in three to four years, which is faster than the Woodnote.”
Eduardo Malorni, the Concordia Student Union’s general coordinator, gave an update on the project. “The CSU is currently in discussions with UTILE regarding the possible creation of a second housing cooperative project following the successful completion of the Woodnote. This would manifest itself as an investment into the PUSH (Popular University Student Housing) Fund. Currently we are in discussions regarding the scope of the project and if all goes well, we will be sending a referendum question to be voted on by the student body regarding their support for the project in the March 2022 CSU General Elections.”
In a report compiled in 2020, around 50 per cent of the Woodnote’s residents were Quebecers. The other half was split between Canadian and international tenants. Levesque said that there was a turnover rate of around 30 per cent within the building, which he saw as beneficial. “It shows that students are happy to live there and happy to move out when their studies are done.” UTILE hopes to replicate the conditions of their first building with this new Concordia project., as their goal is to ensure affordable housing for students.
“We are essentially the only non-profit group to be doing this work on student housing. Our research has shown that there are over 250,000 student tenants in Quebec alone. That’s a lot of people that are suffering in the housing crisis,” Levesque said.
UTILE sees Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s reelection as a green light, as she has committed to creating 2000 units of affordable student housing in her second term. On municipal contributions, Levesque said that “It’s very reasonable for the CSU to expect for the city to pitch in again. We don’t want to place the burden on student unions to fund these initiatives, so it’s good that the city is here to help. There is a lot of political momentum for this project.”
As plans get drawn up and contracts get written, the student housing crisis continues to worsen. The CSU has told The Concordian that it intends on moving forward with the construction of this second building which will help dozens of students find affordable housing in Montreal.
After management woes and pandemic slowdowns, The Woodnote is beginning to take shape
After opening in 2020, The Woodnote Solidarity Cooperative has faced many challenges. The pandemic, a rotating door of board members, and a lack of training and guiding policy have made things difficult. However, as the pandemic slows down, along with a new student board elected on Oct. 17 and president elected on Nov. 5, things are beginning to change.
Sylvia Pascua-Matte joined The Woodnote’s co-op board in October 2020 and is the only remaining resident board member from that time, despite board members being elected for two year terms. She is now president of The Woodnote’s Solidarity cooperative’s board.
“I think that the [current] board has a lot of potential. I think that the board [members] are very confident people, and I love their work ethic and I love the project. But the project in itself is riddled with errors,” said Pascua-Matte.
The housing project is the first of its kind, intending to give students access to affordable, not-for-profit housing. Instead of just the usual landlord-tenant model, The Woodnote is a solidarity co-op, meaning it also has a board made of primarily volunteer tenants who help to manage community living within the building. The board consists of six seats for tenants and three for support members — one from UTILE, the other from the CSU and one representative from the Montreal community.
The three main groups who helped bring The Woodnote to life are UTILE, the not-for-profit housing company that designed, developed and owns the building; the CSU, who were the initial investors in the project, fronting almost two million dollars for its development; and the co-op’s board.
Before The Woodnote opened in summer 2020 a provisional committee of students was created to guide the developmental phase of the project, before passing things onto the board.
The co-op struggled in their first year due to an overwhelming lack of training, and balancing administrative tasks they felt unprepared for, like finding insurance for the building’s common room and creating the co-ops governing policy, while trying to foster a community.
“Nobody in the past provisional committee had even thought about [training]. There wasn’t proper onboarding, because everybody who was on the provisional board [left] and didn’t look back,” said Pascua-Matte.
One reason for the lack of support was that neither the CSU nor UTILE deemed it their responsibility to be involved in the student governance of The Woodnote. However, both groups hold support seats on their board.
“We don’t have any legal obligations to The Woodnote. There’s nothing on paper that ties us to The Woodnote other than this support member seat,” said CSU general coordinator Eduardo Malorni.
“The plan was never for the CSU to be the landlord of this building. The plan was never for the CSU to manage this building. The plan was never for the CSU to be involved in the day to day operations of the board. The plan for the CSU was always to be the initial investor, to allow this building to come to existence, and for the students within the building to really play the main role in managing their own building.”
A sentiment which UTILE executive director and co-founder, Laurent Levesque also shared.
“We handle our management partnership in all of the building operations. So all of the maintenance, rent collection, all of the baseline work to make sure people are safe and the building is well maintained is handled by our team of professionals,” explained Levesque.
“And then there’s the community living layer on top of that, which is handled by the co-op, which is led by students. And in that layer, we only play a support role.”
But it wasn’t just community living that the board was left to deal with.
Stephen Beker has been involved with the project since July 2019. He was a member of the provisional committee put in place prior to The Woodnote’s opening and is the former president of the board. He claims that the provisional committee put in place didn’t do enough to set the board up for success.
“We had meetings every week, and we tried to solve problems we weren’t equipped to solve. And we were tasked with making policy.” Beker said. “The problem is that the committee had no expertise.” Today, much of The Woodnote’s policy regarding finances, labour agreements, anti-opression, sexual assault and misconduct remain unfinished.
“The problem was that when people moved into The Woodnote, the building blocks were not built. As we speak today, the building blocks are still not built,” said Beker. “I would spend hours and hours on the phone, doing the most simple things like trying to get us a bank account.”
These issues have made it difficult for The Woodnote to cultivate its co-op identity, and students have noticed. Dylan Gitalis has been a resident at The Woodnote since it opened in 2020. He says his experience has been “very positive.” But, there are things he thinks it could do better.
“There’s definitely a good strong community here.” Gitalis said. “But it doesn’t really feel like a co-op, it feels like UTILE kind of owns it. It doesn’t feel like we have ownership over the building […] But, we’re still all people here so there is so much in our control in terms of the social dynamics and the culture.”
A Woodnote resident, Dylan Gitalis shares his experiences living in the co-op. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Even though the board is supposed to represent students living in the building, when residents have issues related to the building or their apartment unit they have to take them to the property manager employed by UTILE. This limits the board’s ability to represent students on these issues. Julia Belmore is a former woodnote resident who found it difficult to get help when she had problems with her apartment.
“Every time we brought up an issue, it kind of felt like it became our fault — like my fridge broke, and I wasn’t there and then all of a sudden, they were saying that we’re gonna have to pay for repairs. My apartment had no fridge for like a month in total.” Belmore said.
“But, if anything happened, it was on you to deal with.”
When applying to live at The Woodnote, students are asked what they can bring to the co-op . But, the pandemic and a lack of consistent access to their common room made planning these events difficult.
“Everybody has something they can bring, but nobody’s really doing it now unless you’re on the board and go through all these hoops,” said Gitalis.
“We can all run events that we’re talented at in the common room: someone can run yoga, we can all paint together. We can all do a jam session, and we can paint the stairwells, you know, and make our mark on it. […] That stuff to me means that this is our space, our cooperative. Right now it’s not.” Gitalis continued.
“We want to be a community together.”
Instability on the board also made running these events difficult. There was a very high-rate of turnover with board members consistently stepping down. Pascua-Matte was the only resident board member to return when the five new resident members were elected on Oct. 17. Former president Stephen Beker, who stepped down in October, had concerns that without stability and the removal of a great deal of institutional knowledge under a brand new board the co-op could fold. Something that neither UTILE nor the CSU have been worried about.
“The board is pretty much immune to folding.” Malorni stated. “Let’s say everyone left, every member of the board all decided not to show up. Someone could have gone to The Woodnote and been like ‘Hey, officially the paperwork [still says] that we’re a solidarity co-op. Can we organize a meeting and appoint a new board?’ An entire failure of the board will just result in one year of [a bad] experience, and then someone would restart the board and they would start fresh again,” Malorni stated. Levesque also shares this perspective.
“That’s the beauty of the model. If [the co-op folds] or decides to go dormant or dissolve by its own decision, it doesn’t have any impact on the building continuing its operations. The achievement of the goal of affordable housing is not directly tied to high-level student involvement.”
However, the co-op model is a big part of what makes the building unique, and it’s not something Pascua-Matte wants to see fail.
“To have them say if the board were to fail [it would be fine], that shouldn’t be in the realm of possibility. You’ve poured a [lot] of money into a project. That doesn’t mean you give it the option to fail. If you’re giving it the option to fail, then obviously it’s gonna fail.”
But UTILE said they are holding up their end of the bargain, and in many ways, The Woodnote has achieved many of its goals.
“Woodnote is a resounding success. I mean, they have newly constructed units at a very good price in a very good location and that’s the bottom line.” said Levesque.
“One of the things that The Woodnote does that deserves to be mentioned is the fundamental aspect of not trying to profit off of students,” said Levesque.
“Rents in the project increased by 1.5 per cent to follow inflation; but, rents on the plateau increased by 5 per cent, that non-profit approach to housing is important to make work in the short term. But, [it] has really important impacts in the long term, in ensuring affordable housing for future generations.”
The Woodnote Co-op in the Plateau Mont-Royal. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
To help get the co-op back on track after a rough first year, Malorni said the CSU is giving The Woodnote more attention by bringing in more experienced support members to give input on training and managing the board.
“I’m calling up people with board experience, who actually work in these sort of organizations to find someone willing to take up extra volunteer tasks of helping these people,” said Malorni. “I’ve been ensuring that pieces are joining the board which will ensure its success.”
“I’m playing a much more communicative role, which isn’t necessarily the role of the CSU to try and stabilize this board. We’re making sure that they do have the tools to succeed.”
While the CSU is trying to put more effort into supporting The Woodnote, Pascua-Matte still doesn’t feel she is seeing it enough and still feels the co-op’s concerns are being neglected and ignored.
“We would like to be properly supported and represented and what [they’re] doing right now is not representative of that.”
But as the pandemic eases, The board has finally been able to begin doing the community building it set out to do all along, the board is encouraging students to get involved and they’re responding by starting clubs and running events.
“We’re starting to work with different organizations that reflect what we want at The Woodnote. We are hoping to get some compost soon, […] we’re getting workshops done, like mandatory ones regarding anti-oppression and sexual violence.”
Now, with a new board of enthusiastic members some more training and hard work the student-run community can begin to take shape.
“People are seeing that the board is functioning, and we’re here and we’re supposed to represent you and they’re participating more and that’s what we want: participation,” said Pascua-Matte.
Pascua-Matte thinks The Woodnotes goals as a co-op are worth fighting for, and now with a more stable board they can begin to create a positive change and live up to the original promise of a student managed cooperative.
“Although there’s a lot of turmoil. I think that we can still follow the mandate that was originally given to us,” said Pascua-Matte. “I think the people on this board are willing to work for it.”
Feature graphic by James Fay and Catherine Reynolds
Zoom-fatigue, red-zone isolation, and finishing touches at the Woodnote.
Our mailboxes were installed! Life at the Woodnote is starting to really take shape now, I never realised just how much having a mailbox made me feel like a real person.
Since I last wrote, most of the balconies have also been installed, the silver diamond-shaped siding has been finished, and the construction workers have started adding plants everywhere. It looks great!
Despite the exterior of the building really starting to come together, I still think the interior hallways need some work. I can’t help but wonder if the concrete floor will remain as is, and if they will add some kind of trim where the wall and floor meets. Right now, in the first floor hallway, there is about an inch gap where unfinished drywall should meet the floor.
Tenants received emails from the co-op board encouraging us to join committees. According to a document outlining membership involvement opportunities, several committees are being developed and will be proposed at the Woodnote’s annual general meeting on Oct. 18. These committees include Anti-Oppression, Safer Spaces, Member relations, Outreach, Labour, Arts and specific projects, and much more. Although nothing has come of it yet, I hope that I might be able to have a say in jazzing up the hallways a little bit as a part of the Arts and specific projects committee. I don’t mind the white walls, but some fun, artistic touches and murals couldn’t hurt (think, the murals in the staircase leading up to the greenhouse in the Hall building.)
It would be difficult to coordinate such a project now, under the current red-zone restrictions. Tenants have been asked to limit their interactions with others, in addition to using hand sanitizer at the entrance and wearing masks in the hallways.
All I can say is I’m glad I’m not living alone in this studio apartment. I know others that are, and it must be so challenging to keep from feeling totally isolated. Although online events have a great way of suggesting this aura of togetherness, the Zoom-fatigue is real and even as an introvert, I miss working around other people in the VA building’s studios. I wish there was a way for us Fine Arts students to work in the common room, socially distanced, with masks on. But sadly I don’t think that is a possibility in the slightest. The common room is still bare, safe for construction scraps, garbage and recycling. I wonder if it will be developed at all this year, and where the garbage and recycling bins will be kept once the common room is ready.
Documenting this move has definitely been an interesting exercise in self-reflection for me, giving me the opportunity to think back on the weeks prior, really notice all of the subtle changes and truly appreciate this space that I have come to love. I hope that this small series will inform and inspire future Woodnote tenants. This is an exciting place to be, and I’m glad I get to be a part of it.
Missed the last articles about The Woodnote? Read more here.
I just yelled “hey, on a des cours en ligne, enlève la music ou baise la volume” out of my window hoping the construction workers blasting the radio outside would hear me. They didn’t. At least I have wifi now.
When Videotron finally came to install the wifi, I had to move around all my furniture because apparently there is a specific cable wire that the router needs to be plugged into and my wonderful credenza was in the way. Now it’s three inches off the wall, because the cable is that rigid. My partner and I are considering making a hole in the back of the unit, feeding the wire through and back out underneath. We’ll see if that actually happens.
The past two weeks have been a jumble of spending too much time outside with inappropriate clothing for the recent chilly weather, worrying about having COVID, not having COVID, seeing friends I haven’t seen in months, attending lots of art shows, shopping for prints to decorate our bare walls and plants to decorate our windowsill. Oh, and I can’t forget the ridiculously long fire alarm test last week that burst my eardrums.
As the construction worker’s French radio starts to grow on me, my concerns for my HelloFresh meal kit delivery grows. Recently, packages have been going missing at The Woodnote. Tenants think people from the street are walking in and stealing them or that they are straight up not being delivered. The building’s postal code was updated in early September, but it has not yet been recognized by Canada Post, nor have mail boxes been installed; so the situation is super precarious right now. Yesterday, according to The Woodnote’s Facebook group chat, a homeless man was spotted vaping in the mezzanine.
The temptation to create one of those “things in my Montreal studio apartment that just make sense” TikToks is enticing. Directly in front of one of our kitchen cupboards is a hanging light. Why is it there? It’s impossible to open the cupboard without hitting the light. Can I ask for it to be removed? And to whoever’s job it is to fix these kinds of things, while you’re at it, this piece of green tape on my window marking a chip in the plastic also needed to be fixed before I moved in. Also, my dad thinks my fridge doors should be reversed. But I’m too stressed to ask because we made too many holes in the walls and I don’t want to get in trouble. Yes, we’ll patch them, and yes, I’m overexaggerating.
At first, the Facebook chat was super chaotic and awful. But as the weeks go by, I’m glad it exists. Tenants are sharing printers, moving each others’ packages to safety, giving tips and tricks on how to stop your smoke detector from going off when you’re cooking, and how, or what, to bring to the property manager’s attention. I’m grateful for such a community that’s there when I need them, but also a mute button away when I just don’t want to hear about it.
The building’s laundry machine system is kind of a scam, mirrors have fallen off walls, dents have been made, and strange ladies (potentially reporters) wait outside to ask tenants about the new cool co-op building. It’s not all bad though, I really love my little apartment and concrete view. It keeps me focused on school and work instead of distracted by the blue skies. I actually feel productive! I’m not kidding!
All in all, I think the building has good bones, but there is still so much work to be done.
As I write this, it is T-3 days until my wifi is supposed to be installed. Hopefully by the time you read this, it will be. This week has been a rollercoaster. On Friday, Sept. 4, my parents and I picked up the big pieces of furniture from my partner’s place. My dad bought a new Jeep truck in quarantine, so we were ready to use it, to say the least. My partner was in an online class at the time so we packed without him and returned to my house, where we proceeded to pack all my stuff, bundling the truck in blue tarps in case it rained. Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. was our move-in slot. And thus began the parking problems. My boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to have a lot of help from both our families, but unfortunately this meant parking was an issue, and one overwhelming parking dispute and an apologetic email later, we were moved in — well, our stuff was anyway.
258 square feet of boxes, a bed, a desk, a nine-drawer mid-century credenza (our dresser), carpet and bamboo table with a ridiculously heavy glass top… and we left to have lunch at my partner’s grandparents’ back in Laval. We set up the basics that night, but left the next day again to cat sit and attend my cousin’s socially-distant birthday brunch, also in Laval.
Suddenly, it was Tuesday and E-school was starting, without wifi. My boyfriend and I spent the whole week running from cafe to cafe, before I eventually caved and joined The Woodnote’s Facebook group, asking if anyone was willing to lend me their wifi.
Going from pandemic isolation in the suburbs (or weekend camping trips and drives to Gaspé) to sudden immersion in a world that seemed opposite to what we lived the last six months was a shock to the system. Sure, tidbits still resonate, masks in the unfinished hallways, stairwells and in the stores— but I have not been this out and about since March and I am exhausted.
Back to the building: I had passed by its exterior over the summer, so I knew what it looked like, with red brick and unfinished diamond-shaped grey siding unfinished balconies with wood barriers blocking the doors, and a common room filled with recycling bins. Both staircases in the building look like emergency staircases, not warm, welcoming, main staircases like I suppose one would typically encounter. It is industrial to say the least, and I was, and still am surprised that it isn’t any nicer. It is more industrial than the emergency staircases in the Hall Building, but without the greenhouse murals.
My apartment on the other hand, is great, pretty much exactly what I expected: a five-foot fridge and lots of cabinet storage, one big closet with sliding doors, and a really nice bathroom. We look out onto the cement wall of the building next to us. No windows looking out at us, so that means curtains are the last thing on my to-do list. We bought some hanging plants that thrive on neglect and indirect sun, and mounted our not-so-small tv on the wall above my partner’s desktop computer. It’s pretty decked out— imagine Wade’s set up from Kim Possible, then tone it down a bit. It’s really coming together. Now we just need stuff to put on our bare walls, wifi, and to figure out how to do our laundry.
The Woodnote is a long time coming. First proposed to the CSU Council in September 2014, the housing co-op would be the first of its kind in Montreal, and six years later, the building has finally come to fruition.
According to the CSU’s website, they have always been an advocate for student housing rights by way of HOJO (the Off-Campus Housing and Job Resource Centre). So when UTILE, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and studying student housing co-op initiatives within Quebec, proposed their student housing co-op feasibility report, it was added as a referendum question in the upcoming by-election, and the rest was history. In the next couple of weeks, I will be chronicling my experiences with the initiative.
Finding affordable, off-campus housing in Montreal, let alone any major city, is challenging, if not impossible. Growing up in the suburbs adjacent to Montreal, living outside the city was fine for me. My one hour transit to and from school everyday allowed me to lose myself in podcasts while taking a break from the constant stream of social media and emails. But getting home after late nights was an expensive taxi ride, so I didn’t do it often, and missed out on a lot because of it.
I heard about The Woodnote in ads around Concordia over the past year or so. I was aware it was a thing that was happening, but I never thought it would be something that I would be involved with. But when my artist residency was cancelled this spring and all the money I had saved for it was sitting in my bank account, I decided it was time to move. I began looking for apartments for rent under $850. After several unsuccessful searches, I got an email from The Woodnote reminding students to apply. Shortly afterwards, my application was accepted.
My original plan was to sneak in my boyfriend of almost seven years, who isn’t a Concordia student. Yes, it’s been awhile, and yes, it was time we moved out. However, I was happy to know that housing rules only required one Concordia student per household, so we were in the clear. I later learned that priority was given to Concordia students, given the project was funded by the CSU, but students from other universities were encouraged to apply afterwards.
I applied for a studio apartment (which averaged under 250 square feet) and was assigned a unit on the third floor facing the interior courtyard. I switched about three times before I was satisfied. Now, I still haven’t seen the apartment, but I know this one is over 250 square feet (which is why I swapped) and located on the side of the building, facing a cement wall. The thought of facing a cement wall is nicer to me than what would otherwise feel like a panopticon.
I moved in on Sept. 5. I’ll let you know if all my quarantine interior design planning for a space I’ve never visited works in my favour, or if it’s a complete mess. I can already tell you that I won’t have wifi set up until Sept. 14, so that will be a fun start to a new online semester.
“Not only are rental prices hiking every year but also the vacancy rates are currently at a 15-year low,” Megan Quigley said.
As vacancy rates hit record lows in Montreal, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) and the Unité de travail pour l’implantation du logement étudiant (UTILE) strike back for student rent by opening the Woodnote Collaboration.
The Woodnote Collaboration project will be an $18-million building that will offer 90 units to house a total of 144 students. Though the building will only be built by July 2020, students can apply as of Feb. 5 for the first phase of available units. The building will be located on the corner of Papineau Avenue and Sherbrooke Street across from Lafontaine Park.
“The housing crisis is making finding quality housing particularly difficult for students. Not only are rental prices hiking every year but also the vacancy rates are currently at a 15-year low,” said Megan Quigley, an assistant at the Housing and Job Resource Center (HOJO), in an email to The Concordian. “It can be challenging for students to be competitive renters especially if they do not have credit histories, are new to Quebec, etc.”
Vacancy rates in Montreal dropped to 1.5 per cent in 2019 and are expected to keep tumbling to 1.3 per cent this year, as indicated in an article by the Montreal Gazette. In the meantime, the average rental pricing rate in Montreal climbed to $841 in 2019, an increase of 3.6 per cent from the previous year, reported Global News.
Quigley mentioned to many issues students are facing in regard to housing. “Sometimes we see students who are facing discrimination at the application stage due to their citizenship, immigration status, age, etc.,” Quigley said. “We often see students in precarious or even illegal housing situations, or being subjected to unlawful and predatory landlord practices.”
Other factors include short-term rental companies like Airbnb. A study published in 2019 by McGill University found that those companies take roughly 31,000 housing units out of the Canadian market with thousands in Montreal only, reported the Montreal Gazette.
General coordinator and spokesperson of UTILE Laurent Levesque thinks the Woodnote Collaboration project will help students in need; although the organization still has a long way to go.
“Obviously, 90 units are not enough, and we expect the Woodnote to fill up very quickly,” Levesque said in an email to The Concordian. “We are already working on another 120-unit project, open to students of all campuses, slated to open in Rosemont in 2022.”
The building currently under construction was initially funded by the CSU after a referendum in 2015. The initial $1.85 million from the CSU’s Popular University Student Housing Fund accounted for 10 per cent of the total costs. The City of Montreal also donated $1.6 million. Other investors included the Fond d’investissement pour le logement étudiant, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and Desjardins.
“Our objective now is to start many more projects, because with a housing crisis like the one we’re facing it’s urgent to offer students more housing options,” said Levesque.
Students can send application forms for available units on woodnote.coop.
