Plan for CityHousing units at east Hamilton rec centre fizzles
A years-long ambition to combine CityHousing for seniors with an expanded east Hamilton recreation centre and other services has quietly disintegrated.
A mid-rise building with 44 moderately affordable units on public school board land at the Dominic Agostino Riverdale Recreation Centre was hailed as an innovative approach.
But the residential component of the hub concept - which dates to 2015 - is no longer in the mix due to provincial legislation that restricts housing on school properties.
The city-run recreation centre is connected to Lake Avenue Public School in Riverdale, a neighbourhood dense with apartment blocks just east of Centennial Parkway and north of Queenston Road.
It's crushing" that the partnership hasn't worked out as planned, said Sean Botham, CityHousing development manager.
We'll still be ambitiously pursuing those net new units. It just won't be at that site."
In the meantime, CityHousing is redirecting dollars from the city's poverty-reduction fund that were earmarked for the estimated $20-million seniors' building to other projects.
But those 44 units remain urgent" for Riverdale, which lacks affordable options, said Lynda Lukasik, a Ward 5 council candidate who recently learned the plan had fizzled.
We're in a housing crisis for goodness sake."
A development update included in the CityHousing board's June 21 agenda listed the Riverdale development as no longer viable" on the school lands.
There must be some way around the legislative barrier, whether it means provincial action or a city purchase of the land, said Lukasik, who also leads Environment Hamilton.
Come on, we can do something about this here."
A spokesperson for the office of Neil Lumsden said the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MPP would look into the issue.
Botham noted CityHousing learned in May from city staff that the residential component of the Riverdale project was off the table.
A spokesperson for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board said it discussed Education Act issues with the city as early as 2017.
But it wasn't until 2020 that the board informed the municipality the Ministry of Education had denied a request for residential use on the site, the city said.
The board also advised the city it could try buying the needed lands, but such a purchase was not in the original scope or budget" and would make the residential component unfeasible."
Coun. Russ Powers - who replaced former Ward 5 representative Chad Collins last year after he was elected MP - said he learned of the Education Act obstacle around the same time as CityHousing.
A sale of land - which the board would have to first declare surplus - wasn't on the table, he said.
It never got to the point where those discussions even took place with me."
But the 44 units would have been convenient for seniors with Eastgate Square not far away, he said.
It sounded like a wonderful idea."
The first phase of the Riverdale hub project included a child-care service, which Wesley Urban Ministries opened next door to the recreation centre in January.
While housing is out, more recreation amenities and a food-share component are still contemplated, the city said.
Since 2019, Mission Services has operated a food bank in a cramped east-end location on Greenhill Avenue. It would welcome the chance to move to Riverdale.
A dedicated space at the hub would also suit a community kitchen, something the organization's current strip-mall unit can't accommodate, executive director Carol Cowan-Morneau said.
We'd be happy to continue on and be there to provide the stability that a larger not-for-profit has."
Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com