Another moving day has come and gone in Montreal.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the annual apartment shuffle was a marker of new beginnings: a fresh start with new roommates; a step toward independence for young adults; a merging of worldly possessions for couples getting serious; or a new wrung on the property ladder for growing families.

Now July 1 is often a day of upheaval and even heartbreak.

Despite desperate searching over the past few months, some Montrealers found themselves unhoused after the annual lease renewal date.

A week before the big move, groups that work with renters estimated 2,000 households across Quebec hadn’t yet found a new place to call home, including nearly 270 in Montreal. The number of tenants at risk was higher this year than the 1,600 who hadn’t secured a roof over their heads at the same point a year earlier. And groups were expecting grim new records to be set for people becoming unhoused this July 1.

Many of the unluckiest Montrealers will bunk with family or crash with friends until they can find something. Some will have no choice but to live in their cars. Others will join the growing ranks of those lining up at emergency shelters or camping rough on the margins of society.

But even for those who did manage to sign a new lease, moving day has become a source of enormous stress, as the scarcity and cost of housing exacts a toll. The crisis in the availability and affordability of housing now affects a wide swath of the population across Canada, both renters and buyers alike. And Montreal, once a city of cheap 3½s and plentiful triplexes, has not been immune.

Some sobering statistics were released on the eve........

© Montreal Gazette