Elections
Hamilton has been experiencing a slow-motion crisis in housing affordability. Do you support an expanded role for the City to provide more affordable housing? If so, what should Hamilton do? If not, why not?
Responses to the question: "Hamilton has been experiencing a slow-motion crisis in housing affordability. Do you support an expanded role for the City to provide more affordable housing? If so, what should Hamilton do? If not, why not? "
In This Page:
6 Candidate Responses (top)
| Ward 03 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Bureau, Alain | Yes | |
| Farr, Laura | Yes | Many students would like to stay after graduation - I was one of them, but I had difficulty finding an affordable apartment and good paying job and that was more than a decade ago. It’s gotten worse for recent graduates. The average apartment is $1000 per month, plus utilities. That is 71 hours of work at minimum wage.
We should be looking at incentivizing landlords to keep rents affordable, and continuing to work with partners such as Indwell and Kiwanis, including the “Invest in People” motion passed in 2017 which allocates $50 million over ten years towards affordable housing. There has also been a huge acceptance of ideas such as laneway and pocket homes. I would also advocate for the expansion of accessory homes across the city, and using incentives such as Kitchener-Waterloo to offset the costs for the property owners to do so. |
| Kuruc, Ned | Yes | Yes, I believe the city should have a role in providing affordable housing. I firmly believe that we should be adapting a geared to income housing strategy. I feel that we can innovate outside of the traditional tower approach to affordable housing. We need to think outside of the box to things like modular housing. |
| Nann, Nrinder | Yes | Yes, I support an expanded role for the city in affordable housing.
What I'll do: * I will encourage tenants to organise and advocate for positive change, and help them pressure landlords to comply * I will crackdown on absent, negligent landlords and slumlords * I will explore small loans and grants programs for homeowners that create new affordable units * I will evaluate all new development proposals with an eye to adding more affordable rental units * I will work with residents to establish a continuum of housing, including cooperative housing. |
| Smith, Dan | Yes | I think the city absolutely needs to be dealing with the housing issue. A large part of it is a supply issue. I have worked as a property manager for 13 years and have seen many of the problems that lead to reduced supply. A few years ago Hamilton had a plan to give loans for downtown development. I think a similar plan is needed for housing now. One of the biggest hurdles to providing purpose built rentals is the financing. Loans to provide the mezzanine financing so a bank would back the rest could help significantly in developing new housing. As well, also some of the archaic bylaws that restrict development, mostly in the lower city, need to be changed. |
| Sprague, Kristeen | Yes | I absolutely do support an expanded role for the City to provide more affordable housing. This is vital. The government made some space in the Affordable Housing Act to determine how much development must be dedicated to affordable housing. This does not go far enough. We need to make sure that we aren't selling off municipal assets for private development, and we need to commit the funds to repair existing units that are derelict and vacant. This is definitely a challenge for any municipality, especially when successive governments have not provided the support necessary to maintain and build units. We must make the need for provincial and federal support for affordable housing clear in our dealings with higher levels of government. |
Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 6 | 100.0% |
| No | 0 | 0.0% |
| Maybe | 0 | 0.0% |
7 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)
| Ward 03 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Balta, Milena | ||
| Beck, Keith | ||
| Denault, Steven Paul | ||
| Kavanaugh, Brendan | ||
| Lemma, Tony | ||
| Rowe, Stephen | ||
| Salonen, Amanda | ||
