Nov. 21, 2023
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The City of Hamilton says a new application process will help affordable-housing projects land government funding as local non-profits aim to start building more than a thousand units in short order.
The city says a new application process will help affordable-housing projects land government funding as Hamilton non-profits aim to start building more than a thousand units in short order.
The intake system, which is set to launch in December, is expected to prioritize projects for evaluation and better position them for funds from senior levels of government.
That reboot is indeed welcome, say non-profits, who have called for a nimble and predictable application process while watching in frustration as windows for federal funding close without timely municipal commitments.
“You could miss opportunities, and that’s what happened to us,” said Medora Uppal, CEO of YWCA Hamilton.
But the new system under the purview of the city’s housing secretariat director, Justin Lewis, bodes well, Uppal added.
“It looks like we’re going to have something that’s going to create some predictability, structure and transparency.”
The new project stream is to be guided by a range of criteria, including how proposals address chronic homelessness and reduce wait-lists for social housing.
How “shovel ready” projects are, proximity to services, conformity with zoning, financial standing and energy efficiency are other points of evaluation.
The intake system is a component of the new secretariat’s goal to co-ordinate efforts on affordable housing across city departments and among providers in Hamilton as laid out in a Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap.
“From my perspective, this really creates some structure, some professionalization, if you will,” Mayor Andrea Horwath said after Lewis’s overview of the secretariat’s first seven months of work.
The secretariat is supported by various committees and advised by scholars at the McMaster-based Canadian Housing Executive Collaborative.
The road map, which council endorsed in April, underpins that effort with four strategic “pillars” aspiring to preserve and add to Hamilton’s affordable stock amid runaway rents.
The housing crunch is “one of the most profound challenges that our city faces,” Lewis, who noted he’s a member of the Bear Clan.
“In the Indigenous community, we speak of the thread that holds the moccasin together. I see the housing secretariat division being the thread that holds the moccasin together for the City of Hamilton.”
The intent of the new project stream is to “provide a clearer and more transparent process in our funding allocation decisions,” Lewis said.
To line up federal and provincial “co-investment” funds, non-profits need to show municipal financial backing.
In the YWCA’s case, the window to line up tens of millions in potential federal funds for its $40-million transitional-housing project closed last year with no city commitment in hand.
The agency, meanwhile, is paying interest on a loan it took out to purchase the Barton Street East property near Ottawa Street for $3 million, Uppal noted.
In YWCA Hamilton’s case, the window to line up tens of millions in potential federal funds for its $40-million transitional-housing project closed last year with no city commitment in hand, said CEO Medora Uppal.
Barry Gray / The Hamilton Spectator file photo
If government pots line up, with the hope of a renewed federal program, the housing for women and children promises to have a “really big impact” by freeing up shelter and hotel overflow spaces, she said.
In Hamilton, 1,693 were homeless as of October amid packed shelters, tents in parks and spiking rents. The number of people living outside grew to roughly 343 last month, compared to 280 in September and 160 this past summer, according to city reports.
The YWCA is part of a coalition of non-profits called Hamilton is Home that aims to build nearly 1,000 units of affordable housing and more than 400 supportive units in the next three years — if funding is secured.
A spirit of co-operation and information-sharing among members — rather than competing for limited funding — means more bang for everyone’s buck, says Graham Cubitt, Indwell’s director of projects and development.
In turn, that co-ordinated approach should allow the city to act as “facilitator” rather than “arbiter” of applications.
But even with an improved municipal process, the federal Liberal government still needs to make a significant top-up to the co-investment pot, which has proven insufficient with projects stuck in neutral, Cubitt says. “And we need to be able to move when they make funds available.”
Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was expected to unveil a series of fresh housing initiatives as part of her fall economic statement Tuesday.
In Hamilton, city politicians have endorsed in principle a $31-million commitment over three years to support the creation of 200 supportive-housing units as part of a suite of measures to ease homelessness.
But the rubber hits the road during upcoming budget talks, which will feature a spectrum of competing priorities amid efforts to tame finance staff’s early projection of a 14.2 per cent tax hike.
When it comes to housing and homelessness, a major budget driver, the city is spending more than the provincial and federal governments combined, a staff report notes.
Of $146.6 million in the 2023 budget, the city covered $75.6 million, while the provincial ($38.8 million) and federal ($32.2 million) contributions accounted for $71 million.
The city also coughed up an extra $30 million this year outside of budget talks “because the need is so high,” Coun. John-Paul Danko noted.
But continuing with such a split is “unsustainable” for local taxpayers, he said. “At some point, there’s not any money left.”
Housing costs have been downloaded onto municipalities for decades, Coun. Cameron Kroetsch added.
“This has been a crisis that’s been building since the ’90s. We’re at the tipping point.”