Close to 6,300 of Hamilton’s affordable housing units will be restored as a result of an investment in last week’s federal budget.
CityHousing Hamilton is receiving two loans over a nine-year period, totalling $145.6 million, through the National Housing Co-investment Fund.
The city’s share of funding is $48.5 million, forming what labour minister and Hamilton-West Ancaster Dundas Liberal MP Filomena Tassi describes as a “historic” partnership.
“Housing has also been a top priority of me, and our government,” says Tassi, “when our society chooses to house people, we give our fellow residents, really our neighbours, the start they need to succeed and find a measure of prosperity.”
Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Ahmed Hussen says the funding will support “repair and regeneration” of 6,290 units, almost half of which will be dedicated to affordable housing for seniors.
Hussen says the investment means “a better quality of life, a better quality of housing that is more energy efficient, that is more accessible, that is affordable” for families that will benefit from it.
The federal investment is long-awaited since Hamilton has an aging housing stock.
CityHousing Hamilton chair and Ward 5 Coun. Chad Collins has estimated that 7,000 units owned and operated by the city date back to the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
Hamilton’s wait-list for affordable housing stands at 5,000 households, a three- to five-year wait.