Affordable Housing in Hamilton

City of Hamilton’s new(ish) Housing Secretariat continues to implement the Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap (HSIR) which provides a path forward to address affordable housing issues in Hamilton in a comprehensive and holistic way. Developed with support from McMaster University’s Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC), the HSIR is a strategic document that creates collective accountability for affordable housing across City government.

The HSIR has four overarching pillars with associated actions to help address the housing crisis locally:

1. New Construction of Affordable Housing
2. Acquisition of Affordable Housing
3. Preserve and Retain Existing Affordable Housing
4. Provision of Housing-based Supports

Within each pillar, the City of Hamilton is providing tangible actions to address affordable housing issues locally.

Pillar 1: New Construction of Affordable Housing
Through the launch of the Project Stream, the Housing Secretariat will prioritize new affordable housing construction projects for capital funding. There are several projects under construction already in the City of Hamilton that have benefited from various municipal supports including Planning Act fee waivers, Development Charge waivers and Parkland Dedication Waivers, along with capital funding. If you’re in the area, head over to the Queenston traffic circle to see two under construction CityHousing Hamilton developments or up to 1540 Upper Wentworth Street to visit Hamilton’ East Kiwanis’ most recent development. These are just three examples of the active non-profit development community in the City of Hamilton.  

Another tangible example of supporting the construction of affordable housing is the development of permissive zoning environment for Additional Dwelling Units and providing funding for their construction by leveraging Housing Accelerator Funds. Additional modifications to the City’s Zoning are expected later in 2024 through the Residential Zones Project and will include a new Mid Rise Residential Zone which will hopefully reduce the requirement for site specific rezoning applications for this built form typology.

A local collaboration of non-profits known as Hamilton is Home is also lobbying for additional support through the reduction or elimination of Education Development Charges.

Pillar 2: Acquisition of Affordable Housing
Currently under development but similar in nature to City of Toronto’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition (MURA) program, a local acquisition strategy will ensure retention of market affordable units that are under threat. The recent announcement of the Canada Rental Protection Fund which will provide $1.5 billion to help non-profits acquire existing affordable rental units is an exciting program to watch as it becomes available. The combination of both of these acquisition programs will help address the startling statistic that for every new affordable housing unit constructed, 23 market affordable units are lost, by enabling non-profit groups to compete with market-driven corporations in the acquisition of rental units that are for sale.

Pillar 3: Preserve and Retain Existing Affordable Housing
Many cross-division initiatives are underway within the City of Hamilton to preserve and retain existing affordable housing including Hamilton’s existing Urban Hamilton Official Plan policies to limit condo conversions, the new renoviction policy and implementing by-law, rental replacement by-law, short-term rental by-law, safe apartments by-law, vital services by-law and the vacant unit tax.

Pillar 4: Provision of Housing-based Supports
Hamilton contributes significant housing-based support dollars annually through emergency shelter, residential care facilities and supportive housing initiatives. Without these operating dollars, new affordable housing units wouldn’t be viable as they are vital to the cashflow required to service the debt incurred to build new units. Further, the support dollars directly impact the quality of life of residents within affordable housing developments. The City has a ambitious goal of creating an additional 200 supportive housing over the next three years. One of many local examples of supportive housing is Indwell’s supportive programs which provides a range of tenant supports including behavioral therapy, addiction support, nursing support to ensure medications are regularly taken and quick follow-ups occur, budgeting support and many other supports to ensure tenants stay successfully housed.

Like the rest of Ontario, Hamilton has felt the housing affordability squeeze, but there are a lotof exciting projects underway to help ease the burden on renters. If you’re able to make it to this year’s OPPI Conference in Hamilton, make sure to check out existing and under construction affordable housing projects. A few projects to look at include:

• 253 King William – CityHousing Hamilton with Indwell supports,
• 106 Bay Street – CityHousing Hamilton,
• 500 MacNab – CityHousing Hamilton,
• 55 Queenston Road, CityHousing Hamilton,
• 219, 224 and 247 East Ave N – Indwell’s The Oaks,
• 6 Acorn – Hamilton East Kiwanis
• 1540 Upper Wentworth – Hamilton East Kiwanis
• 16 Steven Street – Sacajawea