Quick thoughts on a proposed private-sector affordable apartment building:
The housing team was asked about the proposal by a for-profit developer to build a private-sector affordable apartment building just down the street from the church at 405 Main Street West. 3H Properties Group Inc. is crowdsourcing for investments in the project for as little as $1 or up to $1,500 with repayment to be based on rent revenue. Here are some quick thoughts on the proposal.
- It’s delightful that a private company is considered trying to build affordable housing units, especially units intended to be permanently affordable. We hope it succeeds.
- 3H proposes that half the units be “deeply affordable” at $884 a month. “Deeply affordable” usually means rent for less than 30 per cent of a household’s gross income. $884 is affordable with a household income of $35,360, well above fulltime minimum wage work at $15 an hour.
- Most non-profits housing providers find it hard to get rents down to $884 a month, let alone make a profit doing so, without subsidies.
- The estimated cost is $27 million. With 96 units, that’s $281,250 a unit, which is low compared to recent Indwell projects or CityHousing Hamilton estimates.