Vital Signs TV: Co-operative Housing in Hamilton

Vital Signs TV: Co-operative Housing in Hamilton

It’s a brand new season of Vital Signs on Cable 14! It’s also Rudi Wallace’s first episode as our new President & CEO.

Rudi Wallace hosts Emily Power and Doug Sider for a Vital Signs episode about co-op housing

In this episode, Rudi hosts Emily Power (President, Caroline St. Co-op) and Doug Sider (Executive Director, Golden Horseshoe Co-op Housing Federation) to talk about co-op housing and its potential to address affordability in Hamilton.

Co-op housing is certainly not a new phenomenon. According to the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, the first co-ops were built in the 1930s starting mainly as student housing. The 70s and 80s saw a period of development with tens of thousands of co-ops built, though cutbacks in the 90s led to thousands of builds being cancelled. Fast forward to 2024 and the most recent federal budget announcement has many co-op advocates excited for the future, with the announcement of a $1.5 billion commitment to build a “new generation of co-op housing.”

In this episode, you’ll also hear a great success story from Emily Power who, along with her fellow tenants at 272 Caroline St., came together and made a plan to purchase the building from the landlord who intended to sell it. The path to success is not easy – waitlists for current co-op housing is long – but the opportunities are here, especially given recent federal commitments.

Key quotes from this episode:

“The thing about co-op housing is that it’s affordable forever. It cannot be bought. It cannot be converted…It keeps [the building] in the non-market space, owned by the people who live there.” – Doug Sider, on how co-op housing contributes to affordable housing

“This is an amazing time for people who are interested in forming a [co-op] group, just go for it and dream big.” – Emily Power, on the present opportunity

“This is the first time in 35 years that we’ve had a real housing development program [federally] specifically for co-operative housing.” – Doug Sider, on the recent federal commitment to co-op housing

“We got together as neighbours, saying how can we support each other…We started to dream about what might be possible.” Emily Power, on how the Caroline Street Co-op came together