CityHousing Hamilton (CHH), the municipally-owned affordable housing provider in the City of Hamilton, recently announced that they have driven their vacancy rate down to an all-time low of 2.2 per cent after a peak of over 9.0 per cent in early 2023.
CHH says that, on average, 40 to 50 units within their housing portfolio become vacant each month and then require work, which ranges “from a simple coat of paint to extensive repairs beyond regular wear and tear.”
CHH has 7,122 units with more than 13,000 tenants.
By early 2023, their maintenance repair backlog reached 649 units – an issue the city says CHH has struggled with “for years.”
In Spring 2023, the city made changes to address the issue, giving CHH $3.8 million to help clear the backlog.
CHH also implemented new tracking and monitoring processes and timelines to oversee the status of vacant units more effectively and centralized oversight of vacancy renovations for better coordination.
In terms of budgeting, they took a revised approach to ensure an annual baseline of funding is protected to support projected unit turnovers for the year and established a new reserve fund to help offset unplanned cost pressures in future years.
With the extra funding and processes, CHH was able to clear a backlog of almost 500 units, reducing their vacancy rate down to 161 units.
In response to the news, Mayor Andrea Horwath said, “We all know it’s easier, faster, and more cost-effective to preserve and upgrade a home than it is to build a new one, which is why I am so pleased that nearly 500 units have been made available through CityHousing Hamilton’s work.”
The 2.2 per cent vacancy rate also brings the City of Hamilton in line with the average vacancy rate in Ontario’s affordable housing sector.
CHH CEO Adam Sweedland applauded the accomplishment, saying, “Our mission at CityHousing Hamilton is to provide affordable housing that tenants can be proud of, and there has never been a time when the need for us to step up has been louder.”
“I am immensely proud of the entire team and extend my sincere thanks to everyone involved,” he concluded.
CHH is the largest provider of affordable housing in the City of Hamilton and generates two-thirds of its revenue from residential rent, with the remaining one-third from sources such as commercial rents and government subsidies.
The number of units newly rented out was 734 in 2024 – a CHH record.
They rented out 444 homes in 2022 and 559 in 2023.
Most housing is available on a rent-geared-to-income (RGI) basis, while some units are provided at market rent.
CHH operates apartments, townhouses, and single and semi-detached homes.
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.
