Sept. 5, 2025
YWCA Hamilton has demolished Oakwood Place on Barton Street East near Ottawa Street North to make room for a 90-unit supportive housing building for women and children fleeing violence.
YWCA Hamilton plans to fill a gap in the Barton East streetscape with 90 units of transitional housing that focus on the overlapping crises of homelessness and gender-based violence.
The non-profit has demolished Oakwood Place, a former nightspot and restaurant near Ottawa Street North, to make way for its biggest project to date.
The hope is to start construction in December on the six-storey residence for women, gender-diverse people and children fleeing violence, with occupancy expected in late 2027.
The hope is to start construction on the six-storey residence for women, gender-diverse people and children fleeing violence in December.
Teviah Moro/The Hamilton Spectator
It is meant to be a safe place for people to receive support and stabilize their lives, with the goal of moving into permanent housing.
Some of the future residents may come from shelters and others from street-level homelessness, CEO Medora Uppal says.
“It’s not just a roof over their head,” Uppal said. “They need a lot more supports to help them navigate through these situations and their histories.”
The $45-million project calls for 30 units for families offering two or three bedrooms each.
Another 10 “pods” are comprised of six private bedrooms and bathrooms with shared kitchens and living rooms for single women without children.
That configuration responds to feedback from women who said they felt isolated and afraid after fleeing violence, Uppal noted.
Moreover, many haven’t lived independently for much of their adult life, she added. “So that’s a big transition and change for them.”
Residents will have access to on-site staff and a spectrum of support services, including for mental health, substance use and housing.
The hope is have a licensed child-care centre and women-focused health clinic in the building that’s also available to the community.
A unique dual focus on services for residents during their pregnancies and after childbirth alike will offer seamless care under one roof.
This means women won’t have to leave for another type of housing, such as a family shelter, after having their babies.
“This will provide that continuity of care and allow someone to really settle in,” said Chelsea Kirkby, vice-president of strategic initiatives and program development.
The Oakwood Place project is in the works as shelters for women who are homeless or fleeing violence are packed and forced to turn people away.
In Hamilton, about 2,000 people are homeless, according to the city’s latest figures. Of those, an estimated 150 live outside, officials say.
In 2024, a “point-in-time” count of the city’s homeless population that identified 1,216 people found that 40 per cent were women.
That doesn’t capture “hidden homelessness,” which refers to people who fly under the radar, whether it’s because they’re living in the woods, couch-surfing or some other circumstance that leaves them disconnected from services.
Studies show violence, including where the abuser is an intimate partner, is often a factor in women’s homelessness.
A 2021 survey of 500 women and gender-diverse people in Canada found safety issues were a “common concern that undermines housing stability and leads to housing loss.”
Of the respondents, 75 per cent identified as survivors of trauma and abuse, noted the Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing and Homelessness Survey published by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.
“In the midst of few housing options and overwhelmed emergency shelters, many women and gender-diverse people rely on informal networks for housing or engage in dangerous survival strategies to access shelter and meet their basic needs,” the report authors wrote.
“The need to remain in situations of hidden homelessness not only places this group at risk of exploitation and abuse, but also renders their needs invisible to mainstream supports, systems, and policy development.”
Violence can be cyclical, explained Kirkby, noting it can lead to homelessness or precarious living situations that expose women to more risk.
The 1067 Barton St. E. building will be a “safe landing spot” where residents can stabilize and piece their lives back together, she said.
Earlier this year, the city announced $450,000 in funding toward the project, municipal support that Uppal says is critical to securing upper-level government funding.
The YWCA has submitted an application for federal funding through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, she said, and conversations with the province about operational dollars continue.
The Hamilton Community Foundation provided a $3-million loan toward the project.