Will ‘wartime’ home program work in Hamilton, Ont.? Market analysts raise questions

Now that the federal housing ministry has dusted off a Second World War-era initiative to ignite the pace of home construction in Canada, some local experts have skepticism it will be a fit for Hamilton, Ont.

Frank Clayton, co-founder and senior researcher at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Urban Centre for Research and Land Development, suggests the steel city’s determination to handle growth through infill and intensification doesn’t seem conducive to the “wartime” scheme.

“In Hamilton, they don’t want to even have land at all for single detached houses or semi-detached houses. They want infill,” Clayton said.

Clayton is referring to a November 2021 vote in which Hamilton politicians opted to hold firm to the city’s urban boundary and accommodate future population growth without expanding city borders and developing into the countryside.

The wartime home-building idea, which began in the early 1940s, provided standardized housing blueprints to builders allowing for builds in as little as 36 hours.

It’s a program that’s a throwback to the CMHC’s work from the 1940s to late 1970s, where hundreds of thousands of homes were built from thousands of plans approved by the federal housing agency.

Clayton says the wartime housing idea only makes sense for municipalities with space in their suburbs and that “pre-approved designs,” allegedly reducing administrative barriers for applicants, likely aren’t viable for Hamilton.

“We have very large builders now who have their own standard stock of architectural stylings for housing, and they know what they’re doing,” Clayton said.

Remax Escarpment Realty’s Rob Golfi agreed most developers were probably not that excited about the announcement suggesting builders could fit more townhouses and multi-plexes into a space than a house of around 700 square feet.

“They could put more townhouses on a square acre than putting… I don’t know… these strawberry box homes,” Golfi said.

“I think it’s going to be tough unless the Crown Corporation gets involved and they buy the land.”

Golfi also said it’s possible the idea could help first-time home buyers be satisfied with just having a house, albeit a small one.

However, he’s not sure families would be jumping at the opportunity to own a dwelling that likely won’t have much in the way of storage or a front and back yard.

“Back then, people had one car per household and less clothes,” Golfi said.

“I’m saying that people’s wardrobe wasn’t as big. We need more room for a living room because we’ve got… bigger furniture and the big TV.”

Mike Collins-Williams, CEO of the West End Home Builders Association, says he appreciates the idea of bringing back an “all hands on deck” cooperation between the private sector and federal government but doesn’t necessarily see “victory homes” coming to the city.

“There is no silver bullet, there’s no one solution,” Collins Williams said.

“It’s really about that ‘all hands on deck’ approach. We need the federal, provincial and municipal governments to actually work together with the private sector and nonprofit sector to be able to deliver housing faster.”

Mike Moffatt, senior director of policy and innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute, proposed the wartime idea directly to the federal cabinet during meetings in Charlottetown this summer and believes it could cut as much as 12 months off construction times.

“For example, we’re seeing fourplexes get legalized all over the place, but nobody really has that many fourplex designs,” Moffatt said.

“So the federal government could have these designs, give them away for free as a way to really cut the costs of building and speed up approval processes.”

That idea for four residential units on one lot came before Hamilton in early October during the rollout of $93 million in federal funding via its Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) to help cut red tape and remove other barriers to keep the city affordable amid a housing crisis.

Southern Ontario economic development minister and Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas MP Filomena Tassi said the cash was given in part with city applications surpassing a “gold standard” through a promise to issue close to 2,600 permits in the next three years, speeding up a plan for 9,000 units over the next 10 years.

“This is all rooted really in us trying to get as many houses built as quickly as possible, but also working directly with local municipalities who know where the needs are,” Tassi said during an Oct. 10 announcement.

Clayton says fast-tracking permits at the municipal level is the key to tackling the crisis and shortening the time it takes to get any blueprint through municipal regulators, since federal and provincial governments don’t do that part.

“The design is a very small part of the house or the dwelling or the apartment building,” he said.

“So it’s… taking the focus off what it should be, which is to get land ready to go and have an inventory of land ready to go when the market does get better again and the developers can just go ahead start building and selling.”

Steve Robichaud, Hamilton’s acting general manager of planning and economic development, confirmed a set of stock plans, even the wartime blueprints, would have to conform with municipal zoning and provincial requirements.

“Building permit applications for low-density uses, like a single detached dwelling, must be submitted by an individual with a Building Code Identification Number (BCIN) to ensure that the plans comply with the Ontario Building Code,” he said.

Hamilton’s Planning and Economic Development division says it supports the Ford government’s recent review of minister’s zoning orders (MZO) handed out over the last few years and the potential to revoke some that developers have not yet acted on.

Last week, Global News learned the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) waas looking into many of the decrees, which essentially overwrite or replace municipal planning requirements, and considering a “use it or lose it” policy.

Robichaud said the city at present has “no requirements” forcing landowners to proceed with a construction project.

“As such, the city supports the provincial review and discussion around a ‘use it or lose it policy’ and possible legislative changes to further encourage applicants to proceed in a timely fashion,” he said.

It’s been reported provincial Housing Minister Paul Calandra has been sorting through more than 100 minister’s zoning orders handed out by his predecessor, Steve Clark.

The MZOs are apparently under the microscope as Ontario tries to determine which developers have been dragging their heels on projects that have received special permission.

So far, Robichaud says the MMAH have not contacted the city regarding MZO’s and confirmed discussions with provincial facilitators have ceased since the Ford governments Greenbelt land swap reversal in September.

MZOs are a powerful tool within the Planning Act, which allows developers to skip some processes and consultations to get shovels in the ground faster.