Mohawk College is set to open its first-ever off-campus residence to offset housing “availability challenges” in Hamilton.
The learning facility’s vice-president of corporate services says the leased nine-storey building at 55 Catharine St. S. (at Jackson) downtown will create 150 units that can accommodate as many as 300 students.
“It is an existing building previously used as a residence for international high school students,” Kim Watkins said.
“Being vacant, it’s set up in an excellent format for it to be able to accommodate college students.”
Before the acquisition, Mohawk had just one residence on its Fennell campus.
The college essentially now doubles its residence space.
Registration for the Mohawk College Linden Hall residence began this week and students are expected to begin moving in on May 1, ahead of the summer semester start date.
The City of Hamilton estimates some 6,000 people are on wait-lists seeking to occupy rent-geared-to-income housing in the community.
McMaster University recently invested in its own off-campus downtown residence, which began housing some 250 people who have relocated to the city.
Mohawk is also partnering with the online home-sharing platform Spaces Shared, hoping to ease the current housing crunch by connecting students with hosted accommodations.
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