Hamilton co-op residents celebrate their 1st holidays in a building they worked over a year to own

Residents in a building in Hamilton's Durand neighbourhood celebrated the holidays this month with food in one unit and games in another — and it wasn't just the Christmas spirit that brought them together.

In June, tenants at 272 Caroline St. S. purchased their apartment building from their landlord as a co-operative. The process, which took over a year of organizing and required multiple sources of funding, is the first tenant-led conversion of an apartment to a co-op in Hamilton, the group says.

"We're getting to become a big family-like," resident Jim Reynolds told CBC Hamilton.

Residents say it has brought them closer, and given them a sense of security and empowerment, so much so that they're working to help other tenants do the same.

In December 2022, co-op member Emily Power was scrolling a real estate listings website and noticed her building was for sale. The low-rise brick apartment was listed for about $5.25 million, Power said. 

"That was quite a shock. I hadn't even been living here for a year at that point," she told CBC Hamilton. 

A tenant organizer who works in affordable housing, Power predicted a new owner would want to increase rents and expected they may try to push out existing residents, some of whom were seniors paying $1,000 or more below market rent. 

Reynolds, 77, has been in the building since 1991. If he had to pay market rent with his pension, "I'd probably be living in a tent in some park," the retired railroad worker said. 

Power planned a meeting for tenants with her neighbours to discuss how they could "have each other's backs and put up a fight." The meetings were the first time many residents met each other, she said. 

Early on, Power raised the possibility of forming a co-op. Instead of paying rent to an owner or owning property outright, members of co-ops share ownership of where they live. 

The tenants met with the Golden Horseshoe Co-operative Housing Federation and the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, which advocates for and supports co-ops. Those organizations warned them it would be difficult for a group of tenants to raise enough money to buy a building, but they were supportive, Power said. She had a friend who had worked with co-ops in Ontario, and started reaching out to organizations and foundations for tips and insight.

The tenants discussed their options and decided to give the co-op plan a go. 

"I think people were excited by the idea and had the faith to give it a shot," Power said. 

They went public with their plan and made a tentative deal with their landlord to purchase the building if they could pay a 20 per cent down payment. They also worked to discourage other potential purchasers, warning them the building had an active tenants' association that would publicly shame any competition.