‘Rents have been exploding’: Hamilton one of just 10 Canadian cities to see rent prices jump this year

The average price for a vacant one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton has gone up in 2020 - by nearly a quarter.

Single units in the city are costing renters $1,489 a month, about 20 per cent more than the going rate last year, a recent report from property listing service Rentals.ca found.

The year-to-year uptick is the fourth-largest margin among the 32 cities surveyed in the report.

Affordable housing advocates say the spike points to a city in the midst of a crippling rental crisis.

It's nothing new," said Tom Cooper, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. Rents across the city have been exploding, and it's making it impossible for Hamiltonians who live on low-income to make ends meet."

The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton has more than tripled in the last two decades. According to Canada's Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a single unit cost renters just $578 per month in 2001.

The financial hardship brought on by COVID-19 paints an even bleaker picture.

Many of Hamilton's 60,000 household renters lost jobs or income amid the pandemic. As of last week, 1,225 people were listed as homeless in the city's by-name priority list, which includes those who access outreach programs and shelters.

I think the situation is going to get worse before it gets better," Cooper said. The onus to mitigate the housing crisis ultimately falls on policy-makers, he added, particularly considering the rental difficulties experienced by people on social assistance.

The monthly benefits for a person on Ontario Works is $731. That's not even half of what would be required to pay the average rent price of $1,489 cited in the report.

There's simply no way they could afford that type of rental unit," Cooper said of those on government assistance. People have been displaced because they simply don't have the resources."

But much is relative in the rental market.

Hamilton ranked 17th in the report for most expensive cities to live in, and a one-bedroom apartment in either Toronto or Vancouver costs north of $2,000 a month.

What is telling is that 70 per cent of cities surveyed registered drops in year-to-year rent prices.

That's somewhat expected due to the pandemic, said Rentals.ca content director Paul Danison. The shored-up renter pool has forced landlords to lower asking prices. In the Greater Toronto Area, average rent rates have decreased for eight straight months.

So what gives with Hamilton, one of only 10 Canadian cities to see rent prices jump in 2020?

The (still) high rent in Toronto and the GTA caused a rip in the market, and people realized you can get more bang for your buck in Hamilton," Danison said.

We saw that before the pandemic and especially during: if you can take the GO train, if you can commute, why not live in a desirable place wither cheaper rent and more space?"

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com