Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, City of Hamilton Back $31.8M Affordable Rental Development by Victoria Park Community Homes

HAMILTON, Ontario — Aug. 31, 2026 — The federal government announced more than $31.8 million in funding to support construction of a 107-unit, eight-storey mixed-income rental building at 525 Stone Church Road East in Hamilton, Ontario. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is administering the investment through its Affordable Housing Fund, with Victoria Park Community Homes serving as the project's developer and owner. The City of Hamilton is contributing an additional $2.5 million in capital funding through its Affordable Housing Development Project Stream.

Project Details: 107 Units, Mixed-Income Structure

The development, known as Lolcoma Court, will replace a portion of the existing site — including eight townhouse units — with a new eight-storey midrise apartment building. The completed building will include four bachelor units, 84 one-bedroom units, and 19 two-bedroom units, offering a mix of market-rate and rent-geared-to-income homes. An earlier City of Hamilton service-manager consent report described a roughly 50/50 affordability split, with approximately half of units designated as deeply affordable and 25% of units designed to be barrier-free. The project is expected to produce a net gain of 97 units after accounting for the demolished townhouses.

Zehr Group has been selected as general contractor, and Invizij Architects is the project's designer. The building is being constructed to Passive House US (PHIUS) performance standards and is targeting net-zero carbon through building-integrated photovoltaics. Construction began in March 2026.

The development targets small families, seniors aging in place, and tenants requiring barrier-free units. Victoria Park Community Homes currently operates the Lolcoma Court site, which includes two- and three-bedroom townhouses with private yards, electric heat, gas hot water, and wheelchair-accessible units.

Capital Stack: Federal, Municipal, and Seed Funding

The total disclosed public funding for the project amounts to approximately $34.3 million, broken down as follows:

• $31.8 million from the federal government through the Affordable Housing Fund
• $2.5 million from the City of Hamilton through its Affordable Housing Development Project Stream
• $29,100 in CMHC SEED Funding, used for early-stage pre-development costs

A 2025 City of Hamilton report described the project as a roughly $40 million development, financed through a combination of CMHC contributions, CMHC financing, CMHC Seed Funding, and municipal support. At that total project cost, the all-in development expense works out to approximately $374,000 per unit — a figure consistent with PHIUS and net-zero design standards and prevailing construction cost inflation in Ontario. Federal AHF funding alone represents approximately $297,200 per unit.

Affordable Housing Fund: Program Context

The Affordable Housing Fund was a $16.1 billion program under Canada's National Housing Strategy, providing low-interest and forgivable loans and contributions to organizations building new affordable housing or repairing existing community housing stock. The program prioritized projects serving women and children fleeing family violence, seniors, Indigenous peoples, people living with disabilities, individuals with mental health or addiction issues, Veterans, and young adults. As of March 2026, the federal government had committed $15.83 billion under the AHF to support the creation of more than 61,700 units and the repair of more than 174,700 units. The AHF application portal is now closed, with all funding committed.

In September 2025, the federal government announced a $1.5 billion top-up in loans for the AHF's New Construction Stream to support the creation of more than 5,000 new units beginning in the 2025–26 fiscal year, alongside an acceleration of the AHF's Rapid Housing Sub-Stream through the reallocation of $385 million from future years.

The Hamilton announcement was made by Lisa Hepfner, Member of Parliament for Hamilton Mountain, on behalf of Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, alongside Andrea Horwath, Mayor of Hamilton.

Quotes From Project Partners

Mayor Horwath commented on the project's significance for the city's housing supply: "We need more homes in Hamilton, and we need housing that people can afford. These 107 new rental homes, including rent-geared-to-income options, will make a real difference for Hamiltonians looking for a place to call home. This is what partnership looks like — working with the federal government and housing providers like Victoria Park Homes, to increase supply and build the range of housing our growing city needs."

Victoria Park Community Homes stated: "Victoria Park Community Homes continues to advance, protect and grow the affordable housing sector and with these additional, affordable housing units, residents will have a safe place that they can call home."

Broader Federal Housing Strategy

The Hamilton project is part of the federal government's Build Canada Homes initiative, which is designed to increase the pace of affordable homebuilding in partnership with provinces, territories, municipalities, and Indigenous communities. Build Canada Homes targets deeply affordable and community housing for low-income households, transitional and supportive housing to address homelessness, and affordable housing for middle-income Canadians in partnership with private developers.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a federal Crown corporation, administers housing finance solutions including mortgage loan insurance and securitization, and provides housing market data and research to support policy decisions. CMHC has operated for more than 80 years.

The 525 Stone Church Road East development is located in Hamilton's Mountain district, at the intersection of Stone Church Road East and Redmond.

Sources

• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation — Federal government helps build more homes in Hamilton (Aug. 31, 2026)