The city of Hamilton is seeking your input on proposed policies to protect existing rental housing. This is a vital initiative, but the proposals don’t go far enough. You can send a note saying you support the changes but would like to see them go farther to Justin.Waud@hamilton.ca Or fill out the survey at https://engage.hamilton.ca/rentalprotection?tool=survey_tool#tool_tab
Either way, you need to respond by November 4.
The changes relate to demolition of rental buildings and conversion of rental buildings to ownership buildings (condominiums).
The proposed changes would:
- Require that the vacancy rate is above 3 per cent for two full years, as well as a vacancy rate for unit type and in one of the city’s eight market zones of 2 per cent or higher. A city report notes that for 10 years, the vacancy rate for the most affordable units has been between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent. The Affordable Housing Team says: Given that the city-wide vacancy rate is above 3 per cent now and rents are rising rapidly, the requirement should be at least 4 per cent for two full years.
- No longer allow conversions to condos if the existing tenants agree to it. The city report said this isn’t a criterion based on housing needs or the state of the rental market. The Affordable Housing Team says: This is a good change.
- Add permission to demolish a rental building if the landowner demonstrates that the lost units would be replace by units of the same number of bedrooms, either on site, off site or through a payment. The Affordable Housing Team says: The requirement should be that the replacement units have the same rent as the units that are lost, in effect making provision B 6.1.4.11 of the Downtown Hamilton Secondary Plan apply to the whole city. Otherwise, we will still lose affordable units.
You can listen to a 28-minute video here https://engage.hamilton.ca/rentalprotection?tool=news_feed#tool_tab or read the report on the changes here: https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=325566
Note that the province’s Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, could limit the city’s ability to do anything about demolitions. The city needs to protest the acts change to the Municipal Act that would let the minister set demolition policy for the whole province. Critics fear the minister might eliminate any requirement to replace existing affordable units. See details https://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?postingId=42808&language=en The province is consulting on this possible change until November 24.