Residents of a 21-unit apartment building in downtown Hamilton, Ont. have gone on the offensive to protect themselves from rent hikes or eviction through redevelopment.
Having qualified for a mortgage through a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) program, residents of 272 Caroline Street South are forming a co-op and are buying the building from their landlord.
The city’s emergency and community services committee has voted to approve an $84,000 grant through a Ward 2 reserve fund to help residents raise their downpayment.
“It is not a sustainable model, right now, to use (reserve funds)… to do this,” Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch said during a committee meeting Wednesday.
“But in a situation like this, we’re talking about the impact of $84,000 for 21 deeply affordable housing units. The impact is incredible.”
A recent consultant’s report says Hamilton has lost more than 15,000 affordable rental units on the private market since 2011.
“Every single unit that we can move out of the private market, into the non-market system, is a unit that’s going to have a protective effect on every renter,” Dundas Councillor Alex Wilson said. “I just think that’s so exciting, and it speaks to the solidarity that we need to have, and the care for our neighbours we need to have in managing this crisis together.”