Hamilton loans tenants $84K to help purchase apartment to avoid rent hikes

Hamilton city council has unanimously approved a recommendation to help a group of tenants buy their affordable apartment building.

The tenants are trying to form a non-profit rental co-op because they are concerned if the building is sold to a developer it may lead to them having to find new apartments at a much higher market price.

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The tenants at 272 Caroline Street South will receive $84,000 towards their down payment on the 21-unit building in the form of a forgivable loan. This means as long as they don’t sell the building, and it stays affordable for 20 years, they don’t have to pay it back.

Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath wants Hamiltonians to understand council’s decision to spend tax dollars on this project is about protecting existing affordable housing. She said, “It’s not so much the particular group of tenants but the units.”

CHCH News asked Premier Doug Ford about the decision at an unrelated skilled trades funding announcement in Burlington. Ford underlined his belief the province needs answers to the housing crisis but wouldn’t say if he agreed with this approach to protect affordable rental units.

“We believe in supply and demand and all the best to the folks in Hamilton, they’re thinking outside the box,” Ford said.

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Emily Power, a housing advocate and member of the building’s tenants association says she and all the residents are grateful.

The building is listed for $5,250,000, they will have to raise more than $1 million for the down payment and are looking for additional funding from different levels of government and community organizations.

Power says if they successfully buy the building and establish the co-op none of the residents will be able to sell their units.

“When somebody leaves the building, they’re not taking any money with them, they’re not selling a share, they’re not selling their unit, they just benefit from that more affordable rent during the time that they live here,” Power said.

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This is a model some members of council would like to see used to protect other affordable units. Ward 8 councillor John-Paul Danko said, “We should consider actually putting this into policy.”

Ward 2 councillor Cameron Kroetsch brought the original motion on the tenants’ behalf and says staff are working on it. Kroetsch said, “…and they’re going to be bringing something in this year or early next year to talk about how we can formalize this.”

The argument behind using public money for this project and perhaps future similar projects is that it would cost substantially more to build brand new affordable units, rather than using the money they are to protect these already existing affordable units.

Power says similar projects have been done in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver,
and she hopes it will be scaled up across Hamilton.

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