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Project Management

Advocating to provide additional supports for Luso to expand their ability to support growing residence for adults with physical and/or mental disabilities.

Advocating to provide additional supports for Luso to expand their ability to support growing residence for adults with physical and/or mental disabilities.

Build a new 5 storey 24 unit purpose built apartment in the downtown core at 233/235 Hunter St E.

Regarding City of Hamilton DC Background Study for Industrial Uses

Looking to create affordable housing in the city of Hamilton at 299 Main Street East. Working actively to add 19 more Rental Appartment with the 1500 Meter of new Rapid Transit

To whom it may concern, my name is Larry Demerling.I have been a resident of Hamilton for 62 years. I have been following you in regards to the affordable housing projects mentioned at the city hall meetings
and in the media.

We have property in Stoney Creek on Hwy. #8. and Chester Road (200 ft frontage) That is currently zoned for multi residential.

This property would be well fitted for a minimum of 6 floors building etc.for low income affordable housing

To whom it may concern, my name is Larry Demerling.I have been a resident of Hamilton for 62 years. I have been following you in regards to the affordable housing projects mentioned at the city hall meetings
and in the media.

We have property in Stoney Creek on Hwy. #8. and Chester Road (200 ft frontage) That is currently zoned for multi residential.

This property would be well fitted for a minimum of 6 floors building etc.for low income affordable housing

Good afternoon,
My name is Daniel Ott.
You have probably worked with my cousin, Jeff Neven, who runs Indwell.
Though I am not currently, I have been a resident of greater Hamilton for most of my life.
I have also worked in the construction industry for most of my life.
This has included both actual physical construction as well as the design and planning side of things.
I have a very good relationship with the Hamilton Building Department.
What I have found myself doing a lot of permits for as the years progressed is adding dwelling units, anywhere from one basement unit to a 16 unit conversion project.
Which led to me starting True North Tiny Homes in 2018 shortly after council approved the creation of a laneway suites bylaw with my intent of building pre-fab ADUs.
We have put the first ADUs in many municipalities across Ontario, and it's been very interesting to see how the by-laws have consistently gotten easier to work with (if you know how to navigate them).
But since then, we have found the uptake on these by-laws (province wide) to be very slow.
I often have lengthy conversations with planners and Chief Building Officials across Ontario about why this is.
The two biggest things holding more people back from taking advantage of this ADU idea is 1) access to eligible property and 2) access to funding.
The people that want to live in these don't own the properties, and the people who own the properties don't know enough about this or don't understand it or just plain don't want it.
Those that do have the property and want to do this, even if just to help out society at large, don't have access to the funding to afford it.
Since the banks won't mortgage more than one building per lot, the property owner is stuck going to B lenders and paying a higher rate, which makes the project numbers work even less than they did to start with.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, and an idea has been forming.

I have a relationship with Habitat for Humanity HMD (Halton / Mississauga / Dufferin) where I have designed the smallest legal Ontario house, and they get high school student shop classes and OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) to build them. For the three years of the pilot program so far, they have donated those 10 produced homes to indigenous communities throughout Ontario.
They are currently building 5 more, have already obtained funding for another 6 next year, and have also just been approved for a massive expansion of the program due to the success of the pilot.
But... they have nowhere to put these houses.

And on the other side of things, we have thousands of people on waiting lists for housing.

Someone needs to step up and find a way to put these two problems together, because they are each a part of the others solution.
And no one else is doing it, so I'm doing my part and delving into this deeper.
It doesn't mean that I will run this program, but I am gathering information from different sources to put a good business plan together in order to find the right person or an already established Not for Profit that can take this on.
So in the following, when I say "we" I mean whoever actually ends up taking care of this program.

So, here's my idea.
I'm talking to the Building Department about getting pre-approved plans for certain areas and under certain conditions so that the permitting process and therefore implementation can go faster.
Habitat for Humanity is going to be building homes at reduced costs (thought not free).
We find people with eligible back yards that are willing to host a tiny home at affordable rent rates. I have a few people on a list already.
These property hosts don't pay any money, they simply agree to let us use their backyard for a period of time for free. At the end of that period, they own the tiny home free and clear and collect the rent themselves.
I have been talking to different NFPs (not-for-profits) about providing tenants, such as Open Homes Hamilton that houses refugees for the first 4 months, and helps them find affordable apartments to move into.
We would continue looking into more NFPs or charities that can provide good tenant recommendations for people in need of housing.
Using the AMR for Hamilton for 2022 (I can't find anything updated since then) of $914 for a bachelor unit, we use that rental income to pay Habitat for the purchase of the homes.

But we still have the issue of paying for all the soft costs and property infrastructure.
Plus, the salary or partial salary of someone to be taking care of all this.
Even with the greatly reduced price of the ADU to start with, there is still a huge financial barrier to someone getting into this.
I'm looking to you to suggest ways that you might be able to help.

I have read about the Ontario Renovates Program on the Hamilton website for starters.
This points out that it has to be the property owner who applies for this.
In my description above, you can see that the property owner can't afford to do this, even with the incentive, which is why I'm trying to figure out a different way.
Is there a way for a NFP to take advantage of the $25,000 forgivable loan?
Or is there something else that we could take advantage of to make this work?

Introduce InfoMedia Systems Group Inc.'s services to the City of Hamilton.

To whom it may concern, my name is Larry Demerling.I have been a resident of Hamilton for 62 years. I have been following you in regards to the affordable housing projects mentioned at the city hall meetings
and in the media.

We have property in Stoney Creek on Hwy. #8. and Chester Road (200 ft frontage) That is currently zoned for multi residential.

This property would be well fitted for a minimum of 6 floors building etc.for low income affordable housing

General BESS permitting and environmental considerations

Meeting to introduce SmartCentres to Mayor Horvath and to discuss current and planned mixed-use development projects that are proposed for various sites in Hamilton by SmartCentres.

SmartCentres REIT is engaging the mayor to outline our plans for new and exciting $1.1B+ mixed-use intensification program planned for Hamilton which will bring over 1,800 much needed residential units to the city. We are happy to provide the Mayor with background on these initiatives including:
• 200 Centennial Parkway N: Mixed-use redevelopment project consisting of ~980K square feet and over 1,100 residential units. The rezoning was approved by Council in August 2023 and we are working toward a Site Plan application for the first phase.
• Hamilton Mountain Plaza (Upper James St and Fennell Avenue): Mixed-use redevelopment project consisting of ~615K square feet and approximately 700 residential units. A Formal Consultation was held with the City in July 2023, and we are working toward making an OPA/ZBA submission in the coming months.
• 510 Centennial Parkway N: This property is approximately 40 metres from the upcoming Confederation GO Station. We have had some preliminary discussions with the City about pursuing mixed-use intensification at the property.

REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) engages in ongoing meetings and correspondence with committees and staff to provide expert recommendations to the City of Hamilton on housing and real estate ownership policies.

Meeting with members of Council to discuss ongoing development incentive programs and the importance of new housing supply to the City's Economic Development and affordable housing initiatives.

Federal taxation matters.

AirMatrix is seeking meetings with City of Hamilton officials to discuss municipal solutions to address safety and effective management of low altitude airspace, improve traffic congestion, and offer improved aerial mapping.

Lobbying to discuss developing a piece of property on Upper James.

-potential event to promote Hamilton to technology minded businesses