Plans & Strategies
Housing in Hamilton
Housing in Hamilton
Date modified
Hamilton is one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing cities, with a population of over 575,000
Despite recent successes in housing development and record-breaking construction values—$2 billion in approvals by October 13, surpassing the previous record by 40 days in 2021 and encompassing 4,755 building projects across residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial sectors, including permits for 3,103 dwellings—the City continues to face significant challenges related to housing affordability and homelessness. Addressing these issues requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach, supported by both Provincial and Federal Governments.
Understanding the urgency necessary to address these issues, the City of Hamilton has been hard at work identifying key local priorities, in alignment with higher levels of government, and strengthening clear action plans to build more housing across the continuum, including: supporting housing-enabling infrastructure growth and development, addressing critical transit-oriented needs, and identifying services necessary to strengthen housing with related supports to ensure residents can remain housed.
Supporting Growth and Development of Hamilton's Housing Continuum
Housing is a top priority for Hamilton, and addressing it requires a comprehensive, integrated and ‘whole of Hamilton’ approach involving infrastructure, transit, and social supports. Like many municipalities across the country, the City of Hamilton faces an acute housing crisis impacting the city’s economic and social fabric, with significant gaps across the housing continuum:
Non-Market Housing
Homelessness Services: Social services for people who lack stable, safe or adequate housing
Emergency Shelters: Short-term lodging for people experiencing homelessness
Transitional Housing: Temporary housing for people transitioning from shelters to permanent housing
Supportive Housing: Facilities with integrated services to help people live independently
Community or Social Housing: Developed with public funding owned/operated by government, non profits, or co-operatives
Market Housing
Below-Market Rental/Ownership: Private Rental or ownership units subsidized by government
Private Rental: Units owned by individuals/firms charging market rents
Home Ownership: Housing purchase by individuals/households at market prices
Construction started on a total of 4,142 new housing units in the City of Hamilton in 2023. This included a diverse range of housing across the entire City, including rental units, ownership units, affordable housing, low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise. The Province has set a target for Hamilton to deliver 47,000 new units by 2031. To meet this goal, the City will need continued support from senior levels of government to address planning, infrastructure, and transit-oriented challenges, ensuring Hamilton is well-equipped to accommodate future growth.
Additionally, Hamilton continues to face unprecedented challenges in supporting unhoused and unsheltered residents, making emergency and provisional shelter options a critical need. The growing gap in services highlights the urgent necessity for investment in shelters and essential emergency supports, as well as long-term solutions. Supportive housing, identified in Hamilton’s Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap as a key area for improving the lives of unsheltered individuals, remains a central focus for the City, offering a pathway to permanent housing for those who would otherwise struggle to maintain stable tenancies.
Construction in 2023 - 4,142 new housing units
Province Target for 2031 - 47,000 new housing units
Building Together: Collective Action for a Housing-Ready Hamilton
The City of Hamilton is well-positioned and committed to tackling the housing crisis, however, the City cannot do it alone and is asking assistance from all levels of government to collectively address this challenge.
Total Investments $185.9 Million, number are approximate
| Source | Percentage | Dollar Value |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Government of Canada | 11% | $19.9 Million |
| Provincial Government of Ontario | 22% | $41 Million |
| Municipal City of Hamilton | 67% | $125 Million |
Hamilton’s Investment Areas
| Investment Area | Dollar Value |
|---|---|
| Affordable Housing | $21.3 Million |
| Tenant Supports | $23.6 Million |
| Social Housing | $93.6 Million |
| Shelters | $39.1 Million |
| Encampments | $8.3 Million |
The City of Hamilton is making significant financial investments and has been diligently working within its limited revenue tools to advance housing development more quickly and efficiently, while ensuring these projects align with sustainability and environmental goals. The City is investing close to $200 per capita in housing, significantly higher than other municipalities. In addition, the municipal investment in cost shared programs has continued to increase year over year, while the provincial and federal contributions, with the exception of investments in child care, has remained relatively the same. To address the housing crisis and build on the progress that is being made in Hamilton, the City requires further partnership from upper levels of government in the following areas:
- Targeted Investment in Housing and Related Support Services for Existing and New Initiatives, Including Direct Funding for Shovel-Ready Housing Projects
- Transit Development and Modernization to Support Sustainable Growth and Improve Community Connectivity
- Funding to Support Housing-Enabling Infrastructure
- Enhanced Social Supports through Investments in Mental Health and Addiction Services to Better Serve Vulnerable Populations
Housing-Focused Investment
- Capital investment: $46.4M from the Province to enable an initial eight affordable and supportive housing project sites identified in Hamilton to begin construction within 18 months – and several immediately.
- Operational funding: direct funding is urgently needed to operationalize housing with related supports by bringing 200 additional permanent supportive housing units into operation within the next 24 months, while also addressing existing projects where the City is subsidizing operating costs without a sustainable funding source.
- Continuation of the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB), as well as longer term funding allocations (i.e. 5-year allocations) related to Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative (COCHI) and Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative (OPHI) to help get people housed and keep them housed.
- To address the immediate needs of unhoused and unsheltered residents, including those living in encampments, invest in expanding the emergency shelter system as a short-term solution, while maintaining our core focus on achieving permanent housing for all. An additional 150 shelters beds would require approximately $3.75M in annual funding and a capital investment of $30M ($200k per bed).
- The City of Hamilton urgently requires $10M in direct funding to bring 200 permanent supportive housing units into operation within the next 24 months. This funding will allow the City to operationalize housing with essential supports, while also collaborating with the Province to address existing projects where the City is unsustainably subsidizing operating costs.
- Investment into prevention and response services to address gender-based and intimate partner violence, including a cost recovery agreement with for overflow beds and hotel placements, requiring approximately $160k for shelter spaces and $900k for hotel overflow annually, and an updated funding formula for gender-based and intimate partner violence supports to ensure long-term support for prevention and response programs, including rural and specific community supports.
Advancing Transit Growth and Development
- An updated design plan and movement on the initiation of the procurement process for the Hamilton Light Rail Transit (LRT) to ensure Hamilton’s LRT project remains on track.
- Confirmation of the inclusion of recently adopted guidelines and standards in the design, delivery and operation of the LRT project.
- An update on the commitment from senior levels of government to establish a working group focused on defining and implementing strategies for affordable housing and achieving housing goals along the LRT Route.
Sustainable, Resilient and Community Enabling Infrastructure
- To rehabilitate, repair, expand and maintain core housing-enabling infrastructure, Hamilton is seeking partnership from the Provincial and Federal governments for an annual funding commitment for core infrastructure. The City of Hamilton has identified a ten-year infrastructure deficit of just under $2 billion, or an annual funding shortfall of $196 million, for transportation and waterworks assets. The revenue tools available to municipalities through the Municipal Act, 2001, are insufficient to address this challenge in an equitable way.
- To facilitate infrastructure renewal in Hamilton for renewable energy and a low-carbon transition, the City requires support for implementing renewable energy projects at key facilities and for operational funding to advance sustainable energy initiatives and decarbonization efforts in alignment with Provincial goals.