The federal government has closed a $35-million funding gap for YWCA Hamilton’s plan for 84 units of transitional housing on Barton Street East.
The six-storey building for women, children and gender-diverse people fleeing domestic violence is expected to open in the fall of 2027, sprucing up a derelict streetscape.
Breaking ground
Community and government leaders, including YWCA board chair Anna D’Angela, Liberal MP Aslam Rana, Mayor Andrea Horwath, YWCA CEO Medora Uppal, MPP Lisa Hepfner and Ward 3 councillor Nrinder Nann, mark the start of construction on the Oakwood Place redevelopment.
Cathie Coward/The Hamilton Spectator
The project will serve as a lifeline to those struggling with homelessness and housing precarity, YWCA Hamilton CEO Medora Uppal said during a groundbreaking event Wednesday.
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“We’ve seen the housing crisis in this city and this country tear through the lives of women and their children in devastating ways,” Uppal said in an emotional address.
“We hear it at our front doors every single day. We are first-hand witnesses to what changes when a woman has a safe and stable home with the right supports around her,” she continued.
Emotional Medora Uppal
Mayor Andrea Horwath comforts an emotional YWCA Hamilton CEO Medora Uppal at the Barton Street East construction site, where the organization is moving ahead with an 84-unit housing project.
Cathie Coward/The Hamilton Spectator
The building is to rise on a vacant lot near Ottawa Street North where the YWCA demolished Oakwood Place, a former nightspot and restaurant.
The federal funding adds to a $6.8-million capital contribution from the city, $3-million Hamilton Community Foundation loan to purchase the property and other spots the non-profit used to meet its roughly $46-million budget.
RENDERING
A rendering shows the planned six-storey YWCA Hamilton transitional housing project on Barton Street East, which will add 84 units for women, children and gender-diverse people fleeing domestic violence.
YWCA Hamilton
The Oakwood project represents a “chance for a fresh start for many, including some of the most vulnerable in the community,” Liberal MP Aslam Rana (Hamilton Centre) said during the event.
The YWCA’s plan calls for 60 units for single women with private bedrooms, bathrooms, and access to shared kitchens and living spaces. Another 24 units for women-led families will have two or three bedrooms, and full kitchen, bathroom and living areas.
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The building will also feature laundry facilities, a rooftop garden and play area, as well as spaces for community programs and services, including health care, child care and employment support.
“Oakwood will ease pressure on shelters and emergency services, reducing long-term costs in the health-care system and provide dignity and the right to safe housing that every woman deserves,” Uppal said.
In Hamilton, 2,243 people were “actively” homeless as of April, a measure that includes people who have accessed the homeless-serving system at least one in the past three months.
A 2024 “point-in-time” count found that of 1,216 people identified as homeless during the one-night snapshot, 40 per cent were women.
That didn’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.
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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.
Uppal praised the role of partnerships, including with the city and federal government, as well as other non-profit housing providers, in advancing the Oakwood project.
In 2022, the YWCA missed an opportunity for federal funding specific to women’s shelters and transitional housing because it couldn’t line up a matching government contribution.
“The city couldn’t make it happen,” Uppal told The Spectator, adding the potential for provincial funding was also out of reach due to an election underway at the time.
Former Oakwood Place
A former Oakwood Place restaurant and nightspot on Barton Street East, now demolished, makes way for the YWCA Hamilton’s transitional housing project.
The Hamilton Spectator file photo
As that federal fund ended, the YWCA Hamilton and counterparts across the country successfully advocated for it to be replenished, Uppal noted.
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Another piece of the puzzle: The city’s housing secretariat launched, providing structure to the evaluation process for municipal funding applications.
That together made for a “real change,” Uppal said.
“We were actually able to say, ‘We’re ready. Let’s go.’”
The YWCA’s project is “exactly the kind of initiative that demonstrates why that work matters,” Mayor Andrea Horwath said about the secretariat’s co-ordinating role.
Oakwood Place will address the housing crisis, but it also promises to infuse “much-needed vibrancy and activity” to its stretch of Barton Street East, Coun. Nrinder Nann added during the groundbreaking event.
With the help of $150,000 in Ward 3 funding, the YWCA building grounds is to feature green space, an enhanced courtyard and public streetscape improvements, Nann noted.
Annual operational funding remains a missing piece, said Uppal, noting the YWCA has been in talks with the province. “What we’re dreaming of and hoping for is $6 million.”
YWCA Hamilton