Hamilton’s housing affordability crisis is the result of “a slow rolling process of abandonment” by senior levels of government, Hamilton Community Foundation CEO Terry Cooke said last week. A special housing-focused edition of the foundation’s regular Vital Signs report showed a couple of the results of the lack of federal and provincial investment:
- “Existing affordable rental housing is eroding: Hamilton has lost 23 affordable private rental units for every one affordable unit it has built over the past decade.”
- “The number of people experiencing homelessness has continued to rise. The top five barriers to finding housing have been identified as: high rent, low income, no social assistance, poor housing conditions, and discrimination.”
- As the chart at right shows, we have a shortage of almost 8,000 units that rent for less than $750. And Justin Marchand, CEO of Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, told the public unveiling of the report that Hamilton needs 3,000 units just for the city’s Indigenous population.
- “Clearly, the underlying issues are systemic, and addressing them calls for collective action from all levels of government, the healthcare, education, private and philanthropic sectors.”
- The goal of the report is to encourage all of us to “raise your voices to advocate for housing as a human right — for all Hamiltonians.”
Read the report here: https://hamiltoncommunityfoundation.ca/vitalsigns-report/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/HCF-2023-VITAL-SIGNS-final.pdf