Canadian city asks residents to shape its ‘family-friendly’ housing plans

The Canadian city of Hamilton hopes that public feedback will be the key driver in its future plans for delivering housing that truly meets the needs of children and their families.

Hamilton, a coastal city of around 537,000 people in the state of Ontario, has launched its Family-Friendly Housing project, an initiative examining ways to provide and encourage an adequate supply of housing suitable for larger households and families with children.

City leaders say that having enough suitable homes available, as well as designing developments and neighbourhoods in ways that are supportive of families, are essential in ensuring that housing stocks meets the needs of all residents.

‘Meets the needs of children and families’

The term ‘family-friendly housing in this context, they say, refers to housing that meets the needs of households with children, that is, a parent/guardian or multi-generational family with at least one child. The public part of this project effectively began life in September last year, when the city council’s planning committee was presented with a new discussion paper, Family Friendly Housing in Hamilton. This outlined various planning-related actions for family-friendly housing which the city could potentially adopt.

Now the city is asking residents to give their views on the plans through a wide-ranging consultation process, starting with two public information evenings later this month.

The first phase runs until July this year, after which staff will assess the feedback before reporting back to the planning committee with their recommendations. Draft strategies will be drawn between August 2022 and 2023, with implementation from 2023.