Context: This project is interested in solutions targeting the market home rentals and market homeownership aspects of the continuum. The project commenced by orienting to the housing continuum and understanding the pinch points that exist throughout in order to inform the project’s foundational knowledge of housing issues in the city, realizing that parts of the housing continuum do not operate in isolation –– both the problems and potential solutions. The findings that surfaced were thematized to encapsulate major issues related to housing in Hamilton as expressed by the various community stakeholders the team engaged.

• Protecting tenants ensures the security and stability of the market home rental landscape for residents.
• Additions to the available housing supply may not always require new housing development.
• The evolving demographics and current realities of the Hamilton housing market are important to recognize.
• Maintaining the status quo is needed to prevent regression down the housing continuum, but also requires active effort.
• Housing, as a basic human necessity, has become increasingly commodified.

Student Team: Kenneth Chen, Riya Patel, Eden Pang, Nivethinie Sivakumar, and Lesha Shah

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Darina Vasek, Elizabeth Bang and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Watch the project video and infographic here.

Context: This project was centred on exploring the issues that Hamilton tenants face in the rental marketplace. Today, renters in Hamilton are unable to afford housing due to increasing living costs and low wages. With increasing rent prices over the last few years and a lack of security because of “renovictions” and informal evictions, residents are struggling to find affordable and suitable housing. Tenants are also experiencing difficulty moving up the housing continuum and are instead regressing backwards. Another important component of market rental housing is student housing. Within Hamilton, students are experiencing difficulty finding affordable and adequate housing. Students are not provided with sufficient education on navigating landlord-tenant relations, tenant rights, and the overall leasing process. Altogether, these issues point to a gap in market rental housing that must be addressed. With this in mind, the market rental housing group was tasked with consulting community stakeholders and providing recommendations to the City of Hamilton on strategies to improve market rental housing. 

Student Team: Aveena Sriharan, Noor AL Omran, Jazz Walia, Val Flores & Ericka Hamilton

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Darina Vasek, Elizabeth Bang and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Context: The cost of living has dramatically increased in Hamilton. Hamilton is now one of the least affordable North American cities to live in. Community partners, academics, and City Staff agree that a lack of supply, as well as zoning, funding, resource, and collaboration issues make affordable housing a complex and multi-level problem. In this report, we outline the scope of our work from the semester and dive into our exploration process, community consultations, findings, and recommendations. Research and consultations with stakeholders have identified a need for the city to build a renewal strategy for revitalizing and developing on municipal owned land that identifies:

• Mechanisms that ensure affordability and sustainability of housing such as specific affordability and development regulations
• Policy goals and City levers to build affordable housing on municipal land effectively
• Coordination of external and internal partnerships and collaboration
• Ways to engage with the community throughout the planning and development process

Student Team: Anastasija Zecevic, Bohmee Kim, Maryam Sheikh, Rachel Long, Rhea Saini

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Darina Vasek, Elizabeth Bang and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Context: In the City of Hamilton (CoH), many tenants report that their rent takes up a majority of their income, while they struggle to pay remaining non-housing expenditures. This is the result of Hamilton’s lack of affordable rental stock. There are many gaps in existing municipal policies that hinder the production and maintenance of affordable rentals in the city. The CoH recognizes these issues in Hamilton as they have committed to implementing a Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap (HSIR). This semester, CityLAB is contributing to the CoH’s HSIR by conducting research through engagement with diverse stakeholders. Our group’s project centers on affordable rentals. Throughout numerous conversations with City staff, community organizations, and organizations representing the private sector, our team has determined three key reasons for Hamilton’s shortage of affordable rentals: (1) the loss of existing affordable stock due to reno- and demovictions, and vacancy decontrol, (2) the high costs of building and developing new stock, and (3) the financialization of housing.

Student Team: Anne Tinio, Bianca Magdalinis, Eunice Tunggal, Ivan Kredl, Lucas Holler

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Darina Vasek, Elizabeth Bang and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Context: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 impacted individuals in all sections of the housing continuum, such as negatively affecting people’s income stability. However, these impacts had disproportionate consequences for individuals on the left end of the housing continuum. Specifically, the high level of uncertainty and lack of stability led to lost jobs and lower wages for members of low-income and vulnerable communities. From September 6, 2022, to December 8, 2022, a group of five McMaster students, Kundan Ahluwalia, Elza Joji, Shauna Ko, Fiona Sharpe and Ritika Sudan worked with CityLAB instructors and various stakeholders to discover the needs, concerns, and future plans for Hamilton’s community housing sector, which resulted in the proposal of a few recommendations to the currently developing HSIR. While the Project Group aims to advance HSIR, it also aligns with the City of Hamilton’s Strategic Priorities (2016-2025), primarily, Healthy & Safe Communities, Built Environment & Infrastructure and Culture & Diversity. The Project Group believes that there needs to be a long-term solution to address the lack of affordable and accessible housing in the City of Hamilton.

Student Team: Kundan Ahluwalia, Elza Joji, Shauna Ko, Fiona Sharpe, Ritika Sudan

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Darina Vasek, Elizabeth Bang and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

The City of Hamilton is experiencing a housing crisis that has been exacerbated by effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Housing affordability in Hamilton continues to decrease, while homelessness is increasing. Altogether, these effects have led to an unhealthy housing continuum. Transitional housing occupies an uncertain place within the housing continuum and Hamilton’s homelessness strategy going forward. The City, province and federal government have adopted a Housing First approach to combat homelessness that aims to place people experiencing homelessness into affordable or market rentals or community housing. Our group aims to understand the current state of transitional housing and adjacent services, what is going well, and gaps and barriers that are being faced by service providers.

Student Team: Alexandria Gonzales Daniel Majik, Nate Steeves Sneha Mukherjee, Zeynep Yilmaz 

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Darina Vasek, Elizabeth Bang and Randy Kay 

Read the final report here.

Watch the project video here.

View the project infographic here.

Context: At the end of September 2021, the Cycling Infrastructure Project Team (the CITeam) began working with Peter Topalovic and Trevor Jenkins of the Sustainable Mobility Program, who brought forth the objective of improving Sustainable Mobility’s public engagement for cycling infrastructure projects. Together, both groups developed the primary objective of the project: to develop a standardized approach to Sustainable Mobility’s cycling infrastructure engagement in a manner that is directly informed by stakeholders. During the semester, the CITeam developed three main deliverables for the City of Hamilton, specifically:

• A Virtual Engagement Session: A virtual community dialogue hosted on with the purpose of gathering feedback from stakeholders on both Sustainable Mobility’s past engagement processes and the CITeam’s novel development of the Classification System
• A Ride-Along Event: An in-person interactive cycling tour with the purpose of gathering feedback on both the physical cycling infrastructure and also determining the effectiveness of the Ride-Along as a form of engagement.
• The Classification System: A systematic approach to cycling infrastructure public engagement in which certain infrastructure characteristics are classed according to stakeholder impact, therefore warranting different levels of public engagement. The system was delivered to the city as a five-page infographic.

Student Team: Nico Belanger, Wajeeha Cheema, Sophie Gordon, Falisha Razack

Project Partner: Trevor Jenkins & Peter Topalovic (Project Managers, Smart Commute, City of Hamilton)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, John Maclachlan, Darina Vasek, and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Context: At the start of the project, it was believed that there was no progress concerning Green Development Standards (GDS) in Hamilton. However, after several informational interviews, the student team discovered that the city is considering GDS for low-density developments, and there has been consultation with the development industry. The student team identified this as an opportunity to raise public awareness of GDS and to include diverse stakeholders in GDS policy design. This understanding was premised by the Design course learnings that address the complexity embedded in urban planning and city-level decision-making processes. The student team facilitated a community dialogue event with developers, community organizations, and city staff to broaden the breadth of consultation of GDS and gather ideas about what an inclusive GDS in Hamilton might look like. Ultimately, the goal of the GDS project evolved to inform better GDS policy that considers Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) principles. This project is aligned with the City of Hamilton’s Corporate Climate Change Goals 1) buildings; 2) climate adaptation; and 8) Diversity, Health, and Inclusion.

Student Team: Sahra Siyad, Kazza Topp-Nguyen, Mehak Kapur, Jasmine Devine, Maleka El Naghi

Project Partner: Lynda Lukasik (Executive Director, Environment Hamilton); Brody Robinmeyer (Project Manager, Friendly Streets for Black, Indigenous & Racialized Communities, Environment Hamilton)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, John Maclachlan, Darina Vasek, and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

View the project video and infographic here.

Context: The overall goal of the project was to increase participation in the upcoming 2022 municipal election. To achieve these goals, the Municipal Elections Group undertook a two-part research project which involved: (1) a demographic data analysis to identify who is and who is not voting in Hamilton’s municipal elections, and (2) focus groups to understand barriers and co-create strategies to increase engagement among one specific demographic group—youth. These components led to a presentation to the City’s Elections Team and the creation of a recommendations report that was provided to the City of Hamilton, with the hopes that these recommendations will be implemented to make the municipal elections process more inclusive and accessible.

Student Team: Milica Hinic, Sharon Lim, Megan Marsh, Muntaka Siddique, Vithuyan Sugumar

Project Partner: Conor Flood & Tammy Reeves (Coordinators, Elections, City of Hamilton); Aine Leadbetter (Manager, Elections & Print/Mail)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, John Maclachlan, Darina Vasek, and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

View the project video and infographic here.

Context: The Hamilton LRT is a planned transit line in Hamilton, Ontario spanning 14 kilometers from McMaster University to Eastgate Square and was approved by Hamilton’s City Council on 15 September 2021. The LRT is a major public infrastructure project and will have varying impacts on different communities and residents across the city. For this reason, it is important that residents are engaged in the planning and design of the LRT.  CityLAB SIR partnered with HCBN to support and further its goals in developing a CBA with Metrolinx, the City of Hamilton, and the local community. More specifically, the CityLAB Project Group helped to conduct community-based research through virtual dialogue events on what community benefits residents would like to see included in the agreement and developed a recommendations report summarizing key findings and suggested next steps for the project. The group also developed an event template for the HCBN to guide future virtual dialogue events, which is based on the cost-free model of the events hosted this semester. The CityLAB Project Group also refined an existing HCBN survey which seeks to provide another avenue for residents to share their feedback and ideas on LRT community benefits.

Student Team: Amandeep Saini, Mirjana Poljak, Tom Parapilly, Mahek Shergill

Project Partner: Karl Andrus (Community Benefits Manager, Hamilton Community Benefits Network); Koubra Haggar (Lead Organizer, Hamilton Community Benefits Network)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, John Maclachlan, Darina Vasek, and Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Context: The Complete Streets Intersection Makeover Project (CSIMP) Team collaborated with Hamilton Sustainable Mobility City staff and the Ward 1 Office to achieve the overarching goal of informing Ward 1 residents about Complete Streets design and to facilitate a meaningful virtual community engagement event that gathered community input about redesigning intersections in Hamilton’s Ward 1 community. The work of the CSIMP Team aligned with several of the City of Hamilton’s Strategic Priorities, including: (1) Community Engagement and Participation, (3) Healthy and Safe Communities, (4) Clean and Green, and (5) Built Environment and Infrastructure (City of Hamilton, 2017). The report will be used by City staff and the Ward 1 councilor to continue the Complete Streets Intersection Makeover project and to inform further work on Complete Streets intersection projects in other Wards and other Cities.

Student Team: Foram Patel, Julia Menezes, Tanisha Palmer, Sarnti Sornpaisarn

Project Partners: Cindy Mutch (Senior Project Manager, Community Engagement)

Project Partners: Rachel Johnson (Project Manager, Sustainable Mobility) and Peter Topalovic (Project and Program Manager, Sustainable Mobility)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Darina Vasek, Randy Kay

Read the full report here.

Context: In June 2020, Engage Hamilton (EH), an online platform was launched that was meant to compliment the different engagement tools and strategies the City of Hamilton uses to promote greater public engagement and make it easier for residents to participate in civic activities. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the platform has become the main source of public engagement, instead of being used as a complementary tool. This is due to the COVID-19 restrictions that were imposed by various levels of government which meant that all in-person public engagement had to be placed on hold in order to prevent the spread of the virus. This has prompted the city to host all public engagement activities online instead. implementation. For the project, CityLAB students collaborated with City partner Cindy Mutch to create interactive and creative seasonal community-building projects to help build the online community on the Engage Hamilton platform as well as increase the platform’s database.

Student Team: Adam Chojecki, Maheen Shahid, Divya Tamilselvan, Zoe Ullyett

Project Partners: Cindy Mutch (Senior Project Manager, Community Engagement)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Darina Vasek, Randy Kay

Read the full report here.

Context: The City of Hamilton regards community engagement and participation as an important municipal priority. The City hopes to collaboratively build a sense of community through transparency, accessibility, and public participation. For many years, this goal has been driven forward by the work of the Neighbourhood Development Section (NDS), formerly known as the Neighbourhood Action Strategy. The NDS works with communities to support resident-led initiatives and help make Hamilton more connected. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought the work of the NDS to a halt as a result of the re-deployment of their staff and an inability to host their usual in-person events. For this project, the NDS partnered with a team of students at CityLAB Hamilton, to tackle this issue and develop recommendations regarding how the NDS should re-connect with residents and effectively support community organizations.

Student Team: Blessing Akinniranye, Harshul Bhanjana, Rebecca Gysbers, Saud Haseeb, Maryam Taj

Project Partners: Al Fletcher (Manager Neighbourhood Development, Healthy and Safe Communities)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Darina Vasek, Randy Kay

Read the full report here.

Context: After the declaration of a climate emergency in March of 2019, the City’s challenge now is to determine Hamilton’s climate priorities and strategize actions to create a green future, one in which Hamiltonians are ready for the impacts of climate change. The primary aim of this project was to develop a list of sustainability and community engagement recommendations that can be applied to Public Works’ Climate Resiliency Strategy, which is set to be implemented beginning in 2021. To achieve this, students worked with Arlen Lemming (Senior Project Manager, Public Works) to investigate: (1) Current sustainability actions implemented in the climate plans of other municipalities, as well as an assessment of these actions’ measured/projected benefits; and (2) Hamilton’s sustainability/climate context (strengths, needs, opportunities). At the end of the project, students organized interviews with global climate leaders and directors of Hamilton’s NPOs; a website prototype of an online engagement tool for residents; a comprehensive final report including recommendations for the Public Works’ Climate Resiliency Strategy for City staff.

Student Team: Ananya Yadav, Derya Demirci, Henery Challen, Wendy Zhang

Project Partners: Arlen Leeming (Senior Project Manager, Public Works)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Darina Vasek, Randy Kay

Read the full report here.

View the project video and infographic here.

Context: The City of Hamilton currently lacks an overarching parkland design and acquisition strategy. As a result, reactionary land purchases have caused an imbalance in the location of parks, and who they have been designed for. Additionally, ever-changing requirements for sports facilities need to be considered city-wide to determine if there is an adequate supply of community sports parks. These problems are exacerbated by urban intensification. Thus, in order to ensure equitable access for all Hamiltonians, the City needs a more strategic approach; a Parks Master Plan. The focus of the Parks Master Pre-Plan project is to provide an engagement strategy that is accessible, wide-ranged and supportive of the City of Hamilton’s vision to creating a sustainable recreational parks network. In alignment with the City’s Vision “To be the best place to raise a child and age successfully”, the Parks Master Plan’s vision is to make Hamilton a better place for everyone and support residents through all of life’s stages (City of Hamilton, 2018, p.2). The CityLAB student group began collaborating with the Department of Landscape Architecture on the Parks Master Pre-Plan in October 2020 under the guidance of Cynthia Graham and John Vandriel. The CityLAB student group joined the project in the pre-plan phase and were tasked with investigating and developing an engagement strategy that the City of Hamilton can use to gauge the park-needs of its community members.

Student Team: Graeme Fishman, Sage Hartmann, Clare Mcgall, Stephanie Wang

Project Partners: Cynthia Graham (Manager of Lanscape Architectural Services) and John Vandriel (Landscape Architect)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Darina Vasek, Randy Kay

Read the final report here.

Context: In March 2019, the City of Hamilton declared a climate change emergency. This declaration was in recognition of the need to address climate change on a municipal and neighbourhood level. Environment Hamilton (EH) is a local non-profit that both advocates for municipal-level responses to climate change and community building to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. In service of their efforts in Hamilton communities, EH has established the Climate Ready Hamilton (CRH) network. The focus of this collaborative project was to build neighbourhood resilience to extreme weather and ensure that residents of Hamilton neighbourhoods are prepared for the adverse effects of climate change. The project looked at developing an asset map that highlighted resiliency hubs in the Beasley neighbourhood and further the CRH network. The CRH mission aligns with the City of Hamilton’s 2016-2025 strategic themes of healthy and safe communities; clean and green; and built environment and infrastructure. CRH contributes to the City of Hamilton’s goal of being the best place to raise a child and age successfully.

Student Team: Suffia Malik, Daniella Mikanovsky, Deepak Palanichimi, Jermey Swenauth, and Claire de Souza

Project Partners: Lynda Lukasik Ph.D (Executive Director, Environment Hamilton), Beatrice Ekoko (Senior Project Manager, Environment Hamilton), Trevor Imhooff B.E.S (Senior Project Manager Air Quality and Climate Change, City of Hamilton)

Read the full report here.

Context: The creation of the Art in Public Places policy, including a chapter on community art, is in line with the City’s strategic plan and will allow Hamilton to create a culture of community engagement, participation, economic prosperity and growth, and healthy and safe communities among other benefits. Creating this encompassing policy can foster placemaking and holds the potential to lead the way for art to be used throughout Hamilton. This project was intended to refine the Art in Public Places policy chapter relating to community art through various community engagement methods, data collection and analysis, and ultimately the creation of a toolkit in collaboration with City Partners. The Community Art Toolkit serves as a how-to guide for people interested in practicing community art in Hamilton, which will encourage its continued creation.

Student Team: Salo Rodriguez Solarte, Hannah Lobb, Ada Zhu, Gurvir Chana, Ameya Nair

Project Partners: Ken Coit (Manager of Placemaking, Public Art and Projects), Jen Anisef (Cultural Project Specialist, Placemaking, Public Art and Projects)

Read the full report here.

Context: From October to December of 2019, a team of five CityLAB SIR students have worked in partnership with representatives from the City of Hamilton and the Hamilton Burlington Trails Council (HBTC) on the early stages of the Cootes Paradise Greenway Loop project. A Greenway is an outdoor active transportation network consisting of multi-use paths, pedestrian walkways, and on-street cycling facilities for both commuter and recreational use. Recreational greenways can be networks of trails linking water-based recreational sites and areas. These trails and routes often have a scenic quality as they pass through diverse and visually significant landscapes. The recreation focus may be on urban or rural areas and the scale may be local, regional, national or international. On a broad scale, this greenway concept has been proposed to serve and connect residents and visitors of Hamilton and Burlington. It has been determined that the first step to achieve the broader Hamilton-Burlington Regional Greenway is to surround the Cootes EcoPark system with a greenway of its own. This project primarily fulfills the City of Hamilton’s strategic priorities of “Clean and Green” and “Built Environment and Infrastructure”. The project report outlines a strategy to implement a greenway around Cootes Paradise and is a comprehensive review of the work that was completed by the Cootes Greenway project group with recommendations for the project’s next steps.

Student Team: Elizabeth Marr, Nicholas Leslie, Saadiya Pathan, Albert Mac, and Eleni McGowans

Project Partners: Daryl Bender (Project Manager, Active Transportation Planning and Economic Development), Jessica Brommer (Project Manager, Landscape Architectural Services, Public Works, Environmental Services), Wayne Terryberry (coordinator of Outdoor Recreation and Natural Lands McMaster University, President of the Ontario Trails Council)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Anna Marie Pietrantonio

Read the full report here.

Context: With an increased emphasis on active transportation being pertinent to future mobility solutions across the globe, cycling has come to the forefront of future development. In the most recent Transportation Master Plan of Hamilton, cycling was determined to be a vital aspect of future strides towards sustainable mobility. Hamilton currently has been developing a network of cycling infrastructure that is ever growing. With the help of Social Bicycles (SOBI), cycling has been made an even more accessible mode of transportation. Moreover, as the city has declared a Climate Emergency, Hamilton has had an interest in increasing cycle-based transportation through creating a Minimum Grid network. The goal of this project was to inform future change within the existing cycling network to increase accessibility for all ages and abilities through community engagement.

Student Team: Deborah Quist, Gabriella Christopher, Hannah Stoesz, Maryam Rana, Parsa Ayani, Tad Moretti

Project Partners: Rachel Johnson (Project Manager, Sustainable Mobility), Peter Topalovic (Project Manager, Sustainable Mobility)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Anna Marie Pietrantonio

Read the full report here.

Context: This project was undertaken in order to support the City of Hamilton in preparing for a successful pilot implementation of the Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP) program within the North End neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario. By following the three-phase SNAP framework developed by the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), this project aims to develop the preliminary research necessary for creating comprehensive community-level climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Specifically, this project focuses on phase one of the framework, which is intended to develop an understanding of local issues and identify stakeholders within the community.  Data collection through the use of preliminary surveys and relationship-building with stakeholders is a key component of the initial phase. The focus of the report supports the work done within the initial phase of the project, seen through background research of the target neighbourhood, taking into account previous and ongoing development in the North End. To learn more about the project, the report outlines the preliminary survey, key stakeholders, and asset identification.

Student Team: Hannah Lobb, Elizabeth-Anne Marr, Ameya Nair, Albert Mac, Nicole Graziano, Sam Patrick, Deepak Palanichami, Saadiya Pathan, Abigail Laulman, Frank Liang, Paerhati Najiman, Taylor DeCoste

Project Partners: Trevor Imhoff (Senior Project Manager, Air Quality and Climate Change), Andrea McDowell (Project Manager, Air Quality and Climate Change), Adam Watson (Project Manager, Healthy and Safe Communities)

Faculty: Dave Heidebrecht, Brian Baetz, Anna Marie Pietrantonio

Read the full report here.