Tenants move into new CityHousing building, part of 'significant,' 13-acre infill development in east end

Nadera Aslamzada sat off to the side during a windy press conference at an east-end apartment building on Wednesday, often adjusting her green headscarf as it blew in the day's intense wind.

The former Afghanistan resident and a mother of teenaged children was there for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at her new home, a new CityHousing Hamilton building just west of the Red Hill Parkway and north of Queenston Road.

"It's very nice," said Aslamzada, one of several tenants of former CityHousing units on the site that will be moving into brand-new apartments.

The building is part of a massive public-private partnership spanning 13 acres in the city's east end, that includes the land of the shuttered Roxborough Park Elementary School and abuts the Red Hill off-ramp at the east. 

UrbanCore Developments president Sergio Manchia, whose company is involved in the project, called it "one of the most significant residential infill developments in the history of Hamilton." 

Aslamzada's building, 8 Roxanne Dr., features 103 affordable housing units, including several units with more than two bedrooms, designed to accommodate diverse and multigenerational households, said Adam Sweedland, chief executive officer of CityHousing. Some tenants have already moved in.

The federal government gave $7.1 million to the project, part of a series of investments into housing in Hamilton.

"Having access to safe and supportive homes will help bring positive change to our communities," said Filomena Tassi, minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and Member of Parliament (MP) for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. 

On Wednesday, Tassi also announced:

The redeveloped community will also include numerous units at market rates, including townhouses currently under construction.

Those wishing to take a look at the work in progress won't find easy directions to Roxanne Drive, as the new street has yet to appear on Google Maps.

The development's western border is along Reid Street, in an area that Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MP Chad Collins knows well. He grew up nearby, and attended Roxborough school.

Collins, a former Ward 5 councillor and former CityHousing president, told CBC Hamilton that tenants who lived in the torn-down units were moved to other public housing for the interim. 

"It would be a couple years that they've been out," he said, noting some may choose to stay in their current units to avoid another move. "They have first right of refusal to come back."