Published September 3, 2026 · Équipe Le Québec Vote
**In 2022, the Coalition avenir Québec pledged to fund the construction of 11,700 social and affordable housing units during its next mandate, on top of making 7,200 additional households eligible for the Rent Supplement Program. Four years later, the government reports a record that comes close to that target: 10,777 state-funded housing units had been delivered since 2023, according to the Quebec Housing Strategy tally published in June 2026. In strictly numerical terms, that represents about 92% of the target. But this comparison calls for several caveats.**
### The key figures
- 11,700: social and affordable housing units pledged by the CAQ in 2022.
- 10,777: state-funded housing units delivered since 2023, according to the government's June 2026 tally.
- 92.1%: raw proportion of the target reached as of that tally.
- 26%: share of the units in new housing initiatives reserved for low-income households, according to the Auditor General of Quebec.
The units counted are not all social housing in the strict sense, several projects delivered during the mandate come from programs launched before the 2022 election, and the new government initiatives reserve a noticeably smaller proportion of their units for low-income households than the older programs did.
## A pledge of 11,700 social and affordable housing units
On August 12, 2022, in the middle of the pre-election period, the CAQ announced a $1.8-billion investment earmarked for housing.
The party framed its commitment precisely: construction of 11,700 social and affordable housing units during a mandate, and the addition of 7,200 households to the Rent Supplement Program.
These two commitments must nonetheless be distinguished. A rent supplement lets an eligible household reduce the portion of its income spent on housing. It can apply to an existing unit and therefore does not correspond to the construction of a new housing unit.
The target to use when measuring the construction pledge therefore remains 11,700 units.
## 10,777 units delivered according to Quebec
In its June 2026 tally of the Quebec Housing Strategy, the government presents the deliveries of state-funded housing units.
| Year | Units delivered |
| --- | ---: |
| 2023 | 2,617 |
| 2024 | 2,244 |
| 2025 | 4,491 |
| 2026, at the time of the tally | 1,425 |
| Total | 10,777 |
The government also projects 17,870 additional units, for a total of 28,647 units projected or already delivered.
Comparing only the number of housing units pledged to the number of units delivered since 2023, the CAQ had therefore reached about 92.1% of its target by the June 2026 tally. It was 923 units short of 11,700.
At first glance, the pledge therefore appears very close to being fulfilled. The question becomes more complex, however, once one looks at which units were counted and which programs they belong to.
## Delivered during the mandate does not necessarily mean launched during the mandate
Part of the units completed since 2022 comes from projects that existed before the last election campaign. This is notably the case for the AccèsLogis Québec program, created well before the CAQ came to power, which had a large inventory of pending projects.
The Auditor General of Quebec notes that the March 2019 and March 2021 budgets provided for the completion of 14,721 new housing units through AccèsLogis by 2026.
As of December 31, 2024: 7,024 units had been delivered; 3,557 were under way; 4,140 additional units were still needed to reach the target; and among those, 3,453 had no active project, including 2,116 tied to abandoned projects.
This data shows that a significant portion of the units delivered during the 2022-2026 mandate comes from a pipeline funded or planned before the 2022 election pledge.
This does not mean the government cannot count them in its overall housing record. A government remains responsible for completing projects inherited from previous years. But to precisely assess the electoral pledge of 11,700 new units, one must distinguish between units delivered during the mandate, units whose funding or project had been launched earlier, and units coming from the new initiatives put in place since 2022. That breakdown is not presented directly in the overall figure of 10,777 units.
## "Social" and "affordable" do not mean the same thing
The other important distinction concerns the wording used in the pledge itself. The CAQ had promised 11,700 social and affordable housing units. These two categories are, however, not equivalent.
In social housing tied notably to the Rent Supplement Program, the cost borne by the household is generally set based on its ability to pay. A unit labelled "affordable" can instead be offered under much broader parameters and may not be exclusively reserved for low-income households.
The Auditor General raised this very question in its May 2025 report on access to housing subsidized by the Société d'habitation du Québec.
## Only 26% of the units in new initiatives reserved for low-income households
The Auditor General compared the older housing programs with the main new initiatives put in place since 2022. As of December 31, 2024, the picture was as follows:
| Initiative | Units operating, in development or under way | Reserved for low-income households | Proportion |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Programme d'habitation abordable Québec (PHAQ) | 5,583 | 2,744 | 49% |
| Agreements with fiscalized funds | 4,125 | 455 | 11% |
| Agreements with developers | 2,714 | 0 | 0% |
| Total of new initiatives | 12,422 | 3,199 | 26% |
By comparison, the Auditor General estimates that about 55% of the units under the older initiatives — Logement abordable Québec, AccèsLogis Québec and AccèsLogis Montréal — were or would be allocated to low-income households.
The drop from 55% to 26% therefore represents a significant change in the makeup of the housing supply supported by the state. The Auditor General also notes it was unable to trace a government policy or direction explaining this decline.
This comparison does not mean that 74% of the units in the new initiatives are intended for wealthy households: it indicates that these units are not formally reserved for low-income households, under the programs' criteria.
## The PHAQ also took time to produce housing units
The Programme d'habitation abordable Québec was launched in 2022 to gradually replace AccèsLogis. But by the end of 2024, only a small proportion of its units were already operating.
According to data presented by the Auditor General: 221 PHAQ units were operating; 5,362 were still in development or under way; for a total of 5,583 units.
On the fiscalized-fund agreements side: 1,799 units were operating; 2,326 were in development or under way. For the developer agreements, none of the 2,714 units counted were yet operating as of December 31, 2024.
This data helps explain why the older programs continue to account for a significant share of the deliveries observed during the mandate.
## A definition of affordability that covers a large share of the population
The Auditor General also raises questions about the criteria used to qualify certain units as affordable. According to its analysis, about 1.9 million households, or nearly half of all Quebec households, could be eligible for certain affordable units subsidized by the SHQ.
The report notably gives the example of a family of four in the Quebec City region that could have an income of up to about $122,000 while still meeting certain eligibility criteria. The Auditor General also identified at least 2,722 households living in affordable housing in 2024 whose income exceeded the programs' financial criteria.
These findings do not mean that these units are not useful or that they meet no need. They do show, however, why every "social or affordable" unit should not automatically be presented as social housing intended for the most vulnerable households.
## How did we assess this pledge?
LeQuébecVote.ca distinguishes five elements: the number of units delivered during the mandate; their program of origin; whether projects were started before or after the 2022 pledge; social housing units reserved for low-income households; and other units classified as affordable.
This method avoids automatically treating every unit delivered between 2022 and 2026 as an achievement directly attributable to the 2022 election pledge.
## So, is the pledge being kept?
A few weeks before the end of the mandate, three findings can be established.
**On the raw number of units delivered: almost.** With 10,777 units delivered against a pledge of 11,700, the target was about 92% reached at the June 2026 tally. The government could still deliver additional units before the end of the mandate.
**On housing units genuinely stemming from the 2022 pledge: impossible to conclude precisely.** The total of 10,777 combines units coming from several programs and generations of funding. Part of the units delivered notably comes from AccèsLogis projects started or funded before the 2022 election. The available figure therefore does not support the claim that 10,777 of the 11,700 units promised in 2022 were newly launched and delivered as a result of that pledge.
**On social housing intended for low-income households: a smaller proportion in the new programs.** According to the Auditor General, only 26% of the 12,422 units tied to the new initiatives were or would be reserved for low-income households, compared with about 55% under the older programs. This is probably the most important nuance for understanding the record.
## LeQuébecVote.ca verdict — On track to be met, with a methodological caveat
The CAQ had promised the construction of 11,700 social and affordable housing units during the 2022-2026 mandate. By the government's June 2026 tally, 10,777 state-funded housing units had been delivered since 2023, or about 92% of that target. However, this total combines several programs and includes projects started before the 2022 election pledge. In addition, the Auditor General finds that only 26% of the units in the new initiatives are reserved for low-income households. The raw number of deliveries therefore comes very close to the pledge, but it does not support the conclusion that 10,777 new social housing units stem directly from the 2022 commitment.
This assessment was drawn up in September 2026 from the latest government data published in June 2026 and the findings of the Auditor General of Quebec available at the time of writing. The figure of 10,777 units is not final: the government could publish more recent data before the end of the mandate.
## Key takeaways
- CAQ 2022 pledge: 11,700 social and affordable housing units.
- Announced investment: $1.8 billion.
- Rent supplement promised separately: 7,200 additional households.
- Units delivered since 2023 as of the June 2026 tally: 10,777.
- Raw proportion of the target reached: 92.1%.
- Remaining gap: 923 units.
- New initiatives studied by the Auditor General: 12,422 units.
- Reserved for low-income households: 3,199, or 26%.
- Older programs: about 55% reserved for low-income households.
- AccèsLogis planned under the 2019 and 2021 budgets: 14,721 units by 2026.
- AccèsLogis units delivered as of December 31, 2024: 7,024.