Apartment license plan shelved

(Update)
Hamilton City Council has decided to shelve the idea of a licensing program for rental housing.

The plan would have charged a $100 licensing fee per unit. They would also implement a proactive housing board that would ensure a minimum standard for rental units in the city. The estimated cost of the board is as high as $1.6 million per year. That would have been offset by the licensing fee’s. But after nearly four and a half hours of debate, Councillor Terry Whitehead says, they blinked:

“I’d been a strong, strong, strong supporter of licensing only because of what I’ve seen. The squalor. I’ve seen the situations of tennants living in really bad conditions and there’s no question we have bad landlords. But we can’t forget we’ve got a lot of great landlords, and those are the ones who came to speak here today and they’re prepared to work with us.”

While licensing of rental units is on hold, they plan to proceed with the proactive housing board, of which all of the cost will fall to taxpayers.