Today we head to the Sud-Ouest borough, more precisely to 2566 Saint-Patrick Street, a few minutes from the Charlevoix metro station.

It is in Pointe-Saint-Charles, along the Lachine Canal, that UTILE officially opened its seventh Montreal project today: UTILE Saint-Patrick.

The announcement was made by Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Minister responsible for Official Languages and MP for Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs, on behalf of Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, together with Caroline Braun, the City of Montreal executive committee member responsible for housing and planning.

The social impact of this development is twofold. On the one hand, it secures an affordable living environment for more than 200 students who would otherwise be competing on the private rental market.

Priority access to the 208 rooms goes to the Université Concordia student community, thanks to a donation from the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to the Fonds communautaire de logement étudiant (CLÉ Fund). On the other hand, by freeing up traditional housing, the project acts as a relief valve for families and workers in the Sud-Ouest, where the rental supply remains very tight.

The building also hosts the CSU's transitional housing program: six places for students facing housing insecurity, hosted for a few weeks with support in their search for permanent housing — a commitment to social mix and to responding to the sector's social emergencies.

From an economic and structural standpoint, this seventh Montreal project by the Unité de travail pour l'implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE) illustrates the complexity — and the necessity — of multi-party financial arrangements to make non-market housing viable today. Acquiring the land, an often perilous step in this sought-after sector along the Lachine Canal, was made possible by a development loan from the Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ.

Here is the detailed fact sheet for the UTILE Saint-Patrick project:

• Developer: UTILE (Unité de travail pour l'implantation de logement étudiant). The project was presented during its development under the name "La Note des rives."

• Financial partners and amounts:

• Government of Canada: a $27 million loan through the Apartment Construction Loan Program (ACLP) of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)

• Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ: an $11.5 million development loan for the land acquisition

• City of Montreal: a $9 million contribution

• Fonds d'investissement pour le logement étudiant (student housing investment fund): a $4.4 million loan

• UTILE: $1.25 million in equity

• CLÉ Fund (Fonds communautaire de logement étudiant): a $980,000 loan-grant

• Total announced financing: $54.13 million, of which $36 million comes from governments ($27 million federal and $9 million from the City of Montreal).

• Timeline: project completed and officially opened on October 22, 2026.

• Financial and social impacts: creation of 95 student rental homes totalling 208 rooms (priority access for Université Concordia students, thanks to the CSU's donation to the CLÉ Fund), plus 6 transitional housing places with support, offered by the CSU. The proximity of the Charlevoix metro station encourages active and public transportation, maximizing the site's positive environmental impact.

With this seventh project, UTILE now houses more than 1,400 people in over 1,000 non-profit homes across Quebec, and aims to operate more than 3,700 by 2030.

This project confirms that collaboration between the various levels of government, labour funds and non-profits remains the keystone for unlocking new homes — and it strengthens Montreal's position as a leading affordable student city.

We will continue to follow the evolution of the residential supply on Saint-Patrick Street, in the heart of a neighbourhood in full transformation.