At a year-end shareholder meeting, CityHousing Hamilton, the city’s municipally-owned affordable housing provider, released documents detailing that they are aiming to build up to 900 net new units over the next 20 years.
The document states that they intend to realize the increase in new units through “renewal of existing CityHousing properties, strategic acquisition of new properties, redevelopment of some aging properties, and gentle, phased intensification that minimizes displacement.”
CityHousing currently owns and operates approximately 7,100 units, which represents approximately 3.2 per cent of Hamilton’s overall housing units.
CityHousing also makes up around 50 per cent of the purpose-built affordable housing supply in Hamilton and 19 per cent of the city’s overall rental housing units.
The report says that, on average, 442 new rental units have been completed in the city annually over the past five years.
However, with expected population growth, the city needs to add a total of 1,100 new units per year to maintain the current ratio of rental homes.
As a result, CityHousing has created a 20-year Development Strategy, called “Future Foundations,” with four Guiding Principles and seven Development Priorities.
The four guiding principles are “embedded equity, financial viability, sustainability, and maximizing public benefit.”
In terms of the Development Priorities, CityHousing is aiming to “ambitiously expand” Hamilton’s affordable housing supply.
Second, they will seek to “maximize the housing impact of CityHousing properties, in balance with impact on existing tenants.”
Third, CityHousing plans to “strategically acquire to retain and expand affordable housing supply.”
Fourth, they plan to “deliver mixed-use and mixed-unit projects to foster community building and support multi-generational needs.”
The remaining priorities are to “deliver units across the housing continuum, demonstrate leadership in housing delivery, and consider time, financial and economic viability, and use time and resources effectively.”
Accompanying the Guiding Principles and Development Priorities are four “enabling moves” CityHousing plans to make to “set the foundation for substantial new housing.”
CityHousing is planning to “advance multiple projects – at various scales – simultaneously, maintain focus on Development Priorities, boldly pursue all possible enabling strategies for development, and establish the approach to tenant engagement and re-housing as soon as possible.”
Through those “enabling moves,” CityHousing hopes to “capitalize on short-term, longer term, and opportunistic development opportunities as they arise,” “maximize the efficient use of scarce resources by cutting out distracting development options,” and “unlocking access to new capital streams.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
