From TheSpec: City tries again for social housing funds
The city is pitching four social housing projects to the province in hopes of receiving a final slice of government stimulus cash.
The city’s previous applications — which included a proposal to turn the former Royal Connaught Hotel into mixed-use housing — were all turned down. This application is Hamilton’s last chance to receive funding from the joint federal-provincial program.
The proposals the city chose to submit were judged based on several criteria, including cost, the bidder’s background, site and construction readiness, and location, said Rick Male, the city’s director of financial services.
The four housing proposals, which were approved by council recently, were the highest-scoring submissions of the 13 compliant projects submitted.
The city’s top priority is a proposal from the Hellenic Community of Hamilton and District. It asks for $210,000 to turn an old fire hall on its property into four affordable housing units, which would add to the 39 units the non-profit organization already operates, said Nathan Hondronicols, president of the Hellenic Community.
The second priority on the list, submitted by Homestead Christian Care, is for 46 housing units at the site of a former bar on Main Street East. The two final proposals, which were also included in the last round of applications, are proposals for 27 units for families on Burton Street and 59 units for seniors on Upper Gage.
There’s about $120 million up for grabs this round, said Brent Whitty of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Successful projects will be announced by the end of March.
In the previous application, the controversial Connaught proposal was listed as the city’s top priority for funding. Tony Battaglia, spokesperson for the group that owns the Connaught, said he was surprised to learn the proposal was excluded from this round of applications after it was listed as the city’s first priority last time.
Anthony Jasinski, treasurer of the Canadian diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church of Canada, shares Battaglia’s concern. His church’s proposal for 83 units on Barton Street was included in the last round but nixed this time.
“We’re very upset,” he said. “We’re still fuming over this last result and we’d like to know what it is that invalidated us.”
Of course, governments reaching decisions in secret, or according to subjective criteria, is not the sole province of communist or authoritative regimes. It happens in Canada too. A good RFP process should result in scored rankings which are then open to all. After-all, it is the public’s money, and they should be able to judge whether the process was properly followed and whether the RFPs were equitably scored.