Oct. 29, 2025
Construction on new affordable housing for older adults is imminent for a recently cleared dirt lot in east Hamilton.
“It’s a path to affordability as people get older,” Kiwanis executive director Brian Sibley said during Tuesday’s groundbreaking event.
Teviah Moro/The Hamilton Spectator
The six-storey building for people ages 55 and up will have a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Of those, 17 units are to be “deeply affordable” and meant for those on Hamilton’s social-housing wait-list. The other 38 are to be at the low end of market rates.
The average rent for a vacant one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton was $1,787 in September, according to Rentals.ca’s latest national rent report.
Teviah Moro/The Hamilton Spectator
The future building’s low-market one-bedrooms will be in the $1,300 range, Sibley noted.
Kiwanis advances its project as more than 6,000 households are waiting for subsidized homes in Hamilton.
The Barton build importantly focuses on older adults, a quickly growing age group, Coun. Tammy Hwang said.
“The people who will move here will be our neighbours. They deserve the dignity to remain in their community as they age,” the Ward 4 councillor said.
Teviah Moro/The Hamilton Spectator
Kiwanis, which operates 1,100 affordable units in the region, demolished a clutch of older buildings and assembled parcels, including a city parking lot, to create the site.
The $21-million initiative, which draws on government funding, including from the city, is among other affordable-housing infill projects in the works for the area:
Sacajawea Non-Profit Housing is building a six-storey, 40-unit supportive residence at Gage Avenue North and Barton for Indigenous people experiencing homelessness;
YWCA Hamilton is working on a six-storey, 90-unit transitional building on Barton, near Ottawa Street North, for women and gender-diverse people and children fleeing violence;
Indwell, which builds affordable and supportive housing, is adding 32 more apartments to the site of its existing 12-unit building on Ottawa at Cannon Street East.
As part of its Barton project, Kiwanis is restoring the former Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Hall across Barton. That’s to include office space, room for resident meetings and day-programming for people with developmental disabilities.
Teviah Moro/The Hamilton Spectator
As part of its Barton project, Kiwanis is restoring the former Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Hall across Barton. That is to include office space, room for resident meetings and day programming for people with developmental disabilities.
Kiwanis is also constructing a 124-unit mixed-income apartment building for families on Upper Wentworth Street near Rymal Road, where it has a townhouse complex.