Hamilton has affordable housing plans for some surplus properties
Published July 24, 2023 at 2:08 pm
The City of Hamilton plans to use about one-third of its 23 surplus properties for affordable housing initiatives, according to data obtained by inthehammer.com.
The revenue from the sale of the vacant land and parking sites marked for affordable housing initiatives could go towards funding affordable housing or the properties sold would be intended to create affordable housing, said Ray Kessler, the City of Hamilton’s chief corporate real estate officer, in a phone interview with inthehammer.com. “There’s a broad range of things that we can do, but ultimately, the object is towards the creation of affordable housing.”
Kessler said council directed his department to do something related to affordable housing with these eight surplus City-owned sites, but he is unable to provide specific details right now.
“At this point, I can’t comment on that because we’ll be bringing stuff forward to council for approval on a site-by-site basis,” he said. “So all of these properties we’re working on currently to bring them to market or dispose of them or sell them or actually create affordable housing on them. So they’re all in the works is all I can say,” he said. “The (affordable housing initiative) plans aren’t finalized yet. … Some of them you probably will see some outcomes fairly shortly in terms of how we’re going to deal with them and some of them will take a little bit longer to sort out.”
Kessler provided inthehammer.com a list of City-owned properties officially considered surplus, or no longer required for municipal purposes, as of July. A site is included in the official list after council declares it surplus under the Municipal Act. Council assesses the new purpose for a surplus site by considering its features and conditions. Or council may ask staff to “sell it for as much money as you can get out of it,” he said.
Hamilton’s current 23 total surplus properties are intended to be sold in the open market, used for affordable housing, residential or mixed-use development and the creation of a film studio district.
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Residents wonder if empty buildings could be used to house homeless
The City held public meetings in June seeking feedback about their plan for encampment residents. During those meetings, concerns were raised about empty buildings such as schools that residents felt should be used to house homeless people. City officials said it’s not so easy to convert these sites into housing and school properties are owned by school boards, not the City.
Kessler noted that “school buildings are very difficult buildings to deal with” because they’re very old, expensive to operate and not easily converted to alternative uses. He said for those reasons, the City typically demolishes school sites it acquires and uses them for something else.
“As a top priority, the City of Hamilton is continually exploring options to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness and those who are unsheltered,” said James Berry, communications officer at the City of Hamilton, in a statement to inthehammer.com. “To be a safe and viable option for some of our community’s most vulnerable a site must meet building code and zoning requirements. Additionally, the building must be appropriate for the need, a third party agency must be identified to operate it and funding must be secured for staffing and operating costs.”
As an example of what the City did to help the homeless using a vacant building, Berry pointed to the City teaming up with Good Shepherd Centre to create a temporary emergency homeless shelter at the former Cathedral boys school at 378 Main Street East as part of the City’s COVID-19 response in July 2020. The former school is no longer being used as a shelter since the affordable housing site at 35 Arkledun Avenue opened in May 2023.
“Although identifying empty/vacant buildings may appear to be a quick solution, it is far more complex and the financial implications are also an important consideration,” Berry explained.
City has other plans for surplus buildings
Kessler said council declares properties surplus or vacant because they are not being used by the City. But the City doesn’t include many vacant sites in its official surplus properties list since they are still being reviewed as potentially “surplus.”
Some vacant sites also may not be on the surplus list because the City already has plans for it, such as for a park, community centre, recreation centre or library. The vacant building may be demolished and replaced with something else if it requires repairs because it doesn’t meet building code requirements, Kessler explained.
“We have lots of open space areas that can’t be used for anything other than maybe some trails … for people to observe nature. Beyond that we’re not disposing of them,” he added.
One of the plans for these surplus sites is to build a film studio district. The City has an agreement with Aeon Studio Group for the project on the Barton-Tiffany lands near the West Harbour. For the 41 South St. W. site, the City approved Dr. Bob Kemp Hospice to use it as a children’s hospice.
Six of the properties categorized as vacant land or buildings are for sale or will be on the market. In addition, three more properties are specifically an “industrial land sale.”
The West Harbour blocks of vacant land on Pier 5, 6 and 7 will be for a major mixed-use development.
Six downtown parking lots will be used for future redevelopment pending the LRT construction.
The City is doing an environmental assessment on the Beach Boulevard area’s multiple properties so it’s not stating any use yet for the vacant land.
The vacant old community centre at 435 Carluke Rd. W. is considered a heritage building. It was previously on the market but the buyer didn’t end up closing the deal, Kessler said. The property is in a rural area in the Greenbelt and the City is in the process of putting it up for sale again for commercial and residential use.
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