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Asante Canada Inc. is seeking help to obtain infrastructure (land and building) such as surplus school assets, surplus municipal assets, surplus not-for profit assets which can be allocated at a nominal value and repurposed. The project requires infrastructure for

a) A Shelter for Women and Children
b) Hamilton Community and Learning center for people of African Descent
c) Seniors Affordable Housing and Apartments for minorities in Hamilton.
We plan to repurpose these spaces to create culturally safe environments our People of African community. We offer services such as women, youth, newcomer, and senior support. Additionally, these spaces will provide temporary shelter and senior support services and connect newcomers to necessary assistance in the Greater Toronto Area.

By working together, with Asante Canada Inc, the city of Hamilton and other public entities can create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all members of our community. Allocating resources to Asante Canada will make a significant difference in the lives of those we serve.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ASK
1. Community and Learning Centre for newcomers from Africa– A community hub where the following services will be provided. Help newcomers learn about Canadian culture and provide job specific training so that they can assimilate and settle into Canadian life quickly. The community center will contain administration offices, amenities and conference rooms and classes with capacity of 150-200 people.
2. A Shelter for Women and Children
An Emergency Shelter- A permanent facility that provides temporary, short-term accommodation (typically less than 3 months in duration). To provide services to adults identifying as women, new immigrants or women experiencing partner violence or abuse who have no other alternate safe place. If a mother, she may bring kids up to age 18 of all genders with her to be with her and be safe. Asante Canada is looking for 50-100 bed shelter space.

3. Seniors Affordable Housing and Apartments for minorities in Hamilton – 150-200 apartments - Asante Canada Inc. aspires to acquire a property to repurpose for a senior affordable residence and aapartment to cater for seniors of African descent seeking a comfortable and supportive living environment. A senior’s residence is very vital to the community as many of our seniors have reached retirement and face poverty and reasonably priced living. Some of our seniors arrived in Canada at an advanced age and live in rental apartments which may not be suitable for them after retirement.

My name is Ruchika Angrish and I am a Professional Planner working on behalf of the owners of the property located at 471 Moxley Road, Flamborough. We met with City staff for a pre-consultation meeting last fall proposing a zoning by-law amendment application for rural employment uses on the property. The owners are proposing commercial uses supporting the surrounding residential and agricultural community.

In a conversation with City Staff, they requested to connect with the Ward Councillor for notification or any specific requirements they would suggest as we are preparing to schedule a mandatory Open House to present the proposal to the community. We are looking to book a venue for the open house and would appreciate feedback and any specific avenues for scheduling this public meeting.

To discuss affordable housing with the Hamilton Housing Secretariat.

Project Management

To collaborate with the city of Hamilton on how to utilize land with schools that are not being used and transforming them it to a mental health and drug addiction facility.

Environment Hamilton shares environmental policy recommendations.

Environment Hamilton makes environmental policy recommendations to the City

Representing the Masonry Council of Ontario in consultation process for the Green Building Standard.

C&W is acting as real estate agent on behalf of Toboggan Flats (Toboggan Living Inc.) which is a Co-Living concept seeking to rapidly repurpose vacant office space into affordable housing for young professionals while revitalizing urban cores. C&W & Toboggan Flats wish to speak with the City about leasing underutilized office space owned by the City or 3rd party owners / landlords in the city which may meet the repurposing criteria.

Additional Details:
- Repurpose vacant floors in downtown office spaces to co-living units for young professionals
- Adaptive reuse of existing buildings allows construction in a fraction of the time of typical office to residential conversion projects and in a more environmentally sustainable manner than new construction via reutilization of the building & systems
- Seeks to address the cost of living & housing crises by providing cost effective co-living opportunities
- Existing office buildings / spaces (full buildings ideally, but will consider repurposing space with existing office tenancy)
- Minimum of 30,000 SF of contiguous vacancy
- B&C class buildings (although depending on cost, A class will be considered)
- Ideal properties have windows on all 4 sides of the building
- Toboggan to enter into long term (10-15 year) leases providing stable cash flow for landlords

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