Sept. 3, 2025
Teviah Moro/The Hamilton Spectator
Older adults will be new kids on the block through a Hamilton non-profit housing provider’s plan to build a 55-unit residence on Barton Street East.
The goal is to provide affordable homes for single renters aged 55 and up that are near services, freeing up some of Kiwanis’s family-sized units.
“A lot of people who live with us stay a long time and their families age out,” executive director Brian Sibley said.
But they remain in those larger, three-bedroom apartments because of Kiwanis’s affordable rents.
But the building on Barton will “provide a road for them to move affordably,” Sibley said.
Those future residents will be just steps away from shopping at the Centre on Barton and along a transit route.
The building will have meeting space for tenants and space will also be available for support services across Barton, where Kiwanis has purchased a veterans’ association hall.
Feedback from seniors in Kiwanis homes found that loneliness is an issue for them, Sibley said.
“So having opportunities to create communities that have more activities is really important.”
Of the Barton building’s 55 units, 18 are to be no more than 80 per cent average market rent, while 37 will be on the low end of market rates.
Average market rent, as measured by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, trends below what landlords ask for vacant units.
The average rent for a vacant one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton was $1,809 in July, according to Rentals.ca’s latest national rent report.
The future building’s market one-bedrooms will be in the $1,100 to $1,200 range, Sibley noted.
Mixed-income buildings offer more financial flexibility to cover ongoing costs, compared to ones that are exclusively rent-geared-to-income, he said.
The Barton building is expected to run about $25 million. Kiwanis expects a roughly $5 million CMHC grant and mortgage. City contributions are about $2 million.
More housing for older adults that’s affordable and near services will be crucial with the Greater Golden Horseshoe’s 80-plus population expected to increase by 700,000 people in the next 20 years, says Jim Dunn, director of the McMaster-based Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative.
“Our infrastructure fails seniors who don’t drive, and that’s a problem for everyone,” Dunn said in a recent online lecture on housing policy.
For older adults who wish to remain independent, there’s a housing “gap” between single-family homes in car-dependent locations and institutional living such as long-term care.
“So what we see is there’s a need for more innovation in different forms of accommodation and support,” Dunn said.
In closing this gap, there are “synergies” to be realized with affordable housing, urban intensification and revitalization, reduced fuel consumption and air pollution, as well as better health among the dovetailing benefits, he said.
Kiwanis’s Barton project is a “step in the right direction” and freeing up family units in the process is “fantastic,” Dunn told The Spectator.
Kiwanis already owned a three-plex (it has relocated the tenants) and bought a parking lot from the city as it consolidated property on the stretch, which includes a former burger joint.
Zoning that allows for up to six storeys helped seal the deal, said Sibley, noting city approval to increase density adds considerably to development timelines.
With demolition expected soon, the project should be a wrap in 18 months.