A new affordable housing building is planned for 53 Hiawatha Street, right beside the YWCA St. Thomas-Elgin, and the city is putting real money behind it.
Council was asked this week to approve construction and fee grants for the project under the city’s Community Improvement Plan grant program. The plan is for a nearly 50-unit building with a separate support building alongside it, and staff pegged the overall cost at $16 million, with a target completion of fall 2027. Council approved the grant on July 13, carried on a voice vote, according to the meeting recording; no recorded vote was taken, so individual councillors’ positions are not on the public record.
There is a bigger commitment behind it too. According to CBC News, the city is contributing $2.7 million and a piece of land toward the project. That land traces back to a vacant Hiawatha Street lot and part of the Scott Street parking lot, both of which council set aside for this exact purpose back in May 2025.
Mayor Joe Preston said the city likes to keep a project or two “ready to go in a box,” with land and partners like the YWCA lined up, so St. Thomas can move fast whenever provincial or federal housing money opens up.
The three-storey building will be mostly one-bedroom units. About three-quarters are earmarked for seniors and the rest for adults under 30, with a fifth of all units fully accessible. YWCA executive director Lindsay Rice said both groups often struggle to find housing in the regular rental market, and the mix is meant to let neighbours support each other day to day.
The building will also include a dedicated Indigenous gathering space, something Elgin Ontario Health Team’s Heather Talbot said St. Thomas does not currently have. She said the space will be shaped by Indigenous community members themselves, for ceremonies, elders’ visits, and everyday gathering.
No construction start date has been set yet. The project follows Project Tiny Hope, the YWCA’s tiny homes community that opened last fall, where 16 residents have moved in so far.
Sources: City of St. Thomas Report PD-44-2026, July 13, 2026 council agenda, City of St. Thomas Report PRF-18-25, Declaration of Surplus Property, May 12, 2025, CBC News, “St. Thomas lands another affordable housing project by keeping plans ‘ready to go,'” July 15, 2026
Edited by Anthony Zruna · About the LocVox Newsroom