Hamilton approves a second round of zero-interest Better Homes Hamilton home retrofit loans

The decision

Hamilton City Council on September 9, 2026, approved the General Issues Committee's recommendations on Report PED23106(a), including the launch of a second intake for the Better Homes Hamilton Pilot Program using existing program funding. That item was voted on separately and carried 12 to 2, according to the Council minutes.

Council also directed staff to explore scaling the program up beyond a pilot, including more energy-efficiency measures and new climate resiliency and adaptation measures, and to work with Climate Action Partnership on an application to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Residential Resilience Financing program.

How the pilot went

• The pilot launched in December 2024 after delays the report attributes to the City's cybersecurity incident and the program portal.
• It received 165 unique applications; 20 homeowners completed the program as of June 2026, against a pilot maximum of 50 loans.
• Loans totalled $356,721.31, an average of $17,836.
• Every participating household installed an air source heat pump, and 85% of the homes were detached houses.
• Sixty percent of participants came from Wards 3 and 4; Wards 5, 8, 11, 12 and 15 had no participants.

Staff found the zero-interest loan was one of the biggest drivers of uptake, while the lack of a grant appears to have limited participation. The report also says the majority of participants were likely in higher income brackets than targeted, based on voluntary survey answers.

How the second intake would work

The report proposes opening the second intake on an open-to-all, first-come, first-served basis. Keeping an active program is a condition of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Scaling Community Efficiency Financing stream, which staff said was scheduled to launch in fall 2026 and includes grant money as well as loans.