A social housing advocacy group in Quebec has officially launched a 28-day march from Ottawa to Quebec City in an effort to raise awareness about social housing issues in the lead-up to the provincial election.

A spokesperson for Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) Veronique Laflamme, addressed media on Sunday citing statistics about the lack of social housing in Quebec and calling on electoral candidates to show their commitment.

According to Laflamme, only about 700 non-profit public housing units were built last year, which isn’t nearly enough to address the pressures facing “the 244,000 households with serious housing needs.”

At a rally on Parliament Hill, the group also called on the federal government to formally recognize the right to housing in the upcoming National Housing Strategy legislation. “We are asking for 50,000 new social housing units in five years,” Laflamme said. “So we call on both governments to invest in these units.”

The march will travel from Ottawa to Gatineau, through the Outaouais region before heading to the Laurentians and arriving in Laval and Montreal on Sept. 13, then off to Montérégie, Lanaudière and Mauricie.

It will wrap up in Quebec City on Sept. 29 with a major demonstration, just in time for the Quebec election on October 1.