Hamilton residents struggle to secure affordable housing

Hamilton residents continue to struggle to secure an affordable place to live.

One Hamilton man says he has been waiting three years for a city housing unit, and he still has no idea how much longer he will have to wait. David Duce says the city can’t tell him where he sits on the waitlist.

The city said it can’t tell people where they sit on the waitlist, because the list is changing constantly and it doesn’t want to create unreal expectations. The constant changes to the list are partially due to a rule requiring victims of abuse to get the highest priority, and even then, they can expect a one-year wait.

54-year-old Duce is on disability and can’t afford an apartment in Hamilton. His doctors have written advocacy letters saying Duce needs some help finding a place to live. “I can’t afford full market value for an apartment, not on ODSP,” Duce said.

Duce’s housing problem has now become an emergency, as he is being evicted after the home he’s lived in for ten years was sold, and he needs to be out soon. “I guess I’m going to be out in the street,” Duce said.

The Executive Director of St. Matthew’s House, Renne Wetselaar said Duce’s case is another example of the desperate need for more affordable housing units. Adding, “we’ve heard wait times of up to 5 or 7 years in some cases.”

Wetselaar said more funding from all levels of government is needed, and the process to develop new units needs to be simplified with affordable housing development applications given priority by Hamilton’s building department.

This summer St. Matthews will tear down a building right beside its headquarters on Barton Street to make way for a 15-unit affordable housing project targeted at Black and Indigenous seniors.

The housing unit will be called the “4-12 Barton Project” and the plan is to have it ready for residents to move into by January 2023.

Brian Kreps with the city’s housing services department says one of the biggest things the city can do to help create more units is partnerships with non-profits. Kreps said there are about 12-thousand affordable units the city is responsible for. “There are some that are vacant but they are vacant pending redevelopment or as part of turnover,” Kreps said.

The long-awaited Jamesville social housing redevelopment project remains empty,
and Kreps said there are a few still unoccupied in the Ken Soble Tower.

As of the end of 2020, the most recent figures available, Kreps said there are about 6,700 people on the waitlist for housing.

CHCH News spoke with Ward 2 councillor Jason Farr and Farr said the demolition of Jamesville has begun with asbestos removal and the buildings will likely start coming down in August.

Farr said the city is fixing hundreds of units across Hamilton. It’s part of a number of projects underway that he says will bring more affordable units to Hamilton.