Indwell development on Waterdown Road runs into some choppy water

By Pepper Parr

April 15^th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

The Indwell development planned for a site on the west side of Waterdown Road just north of Plains Road has Council members asking questions.

The property was bought by the city for $7 million and will be leased to Indwell for up to 50 years.

What does Indwell plan to do with the property and where will the residents come from?

Just who is Indwell?

Indwell is a permanent supportive housing provider that brings interdisciplinary health supports into the buildings that we operate.  We operate over 14 150 units of permanent housing today across southern Ontario. We are focused on seeing our tenants grow in their health, wellness and belonging.

This means that we hire staff who work in our buildings and programs focused on growing our tenants social determinants of health, whether that be supporting their ability to stay housed by coaching them on activities of daily living, providing health supports and referrals into the community, connecting our tenants with employment and volunteer services or helping grow in food security on a limited budget, we also help tenants with family members birthday parties in their building spaces.

The individuals that we hope to house in our programs are your neighbours already. They are neighbours whose income makes it impossible for them to find and keep housing in Burlington at the moment, people on Ontario Disability Support Program are individuals who have been told they cannot work because they have a health condition, and these individuals are receiving $599 for rent on a monthly basis.

Megan Tregunno, President of the Burlington Community Foundation.

A number of organizations want to be part of it. Megan Tregunno, President of the Burlington Community Foundation spoke earlier in the day FIX on their views of the development.  That led Councillor Kearns to ask

“Thank  you very much for joining us  Megan, and for your advocacy on housing for all. One of the things on your website, and from when you did the launch of the Housing Support Fund, you identified two recipients. One thing I did not hear from your delegation, and is a concern for me, is the fundraising abilities of Indwell to wholly fund the build. Am I hearing that Burlington Community Foundation will be one of the financial sponsors of this project”

Megan: It’s not confirmed. We do extend our full support in helping to raise awareness around the initiative and learning more about what exactly the funding needs are, which we are aware of, and working with donors and fund holders to make them aware of the opportunity. So whether it be through our granting that Indwell will be eligible for, just like any other organization, to apply for annual granting in addition to individual generosity and philanthropy from individuals across the city.

Kearns: Okay, thank you for the insights.

Leah Logan and Sylvia Harris from Indwell then did their delegation; this being at least their third conversation with Council.

Leah Logan and Sylvia Harris delegating for Indwell.

Leah Logan did most of the talking with Sylvia Harris watching very carefully.

My name is Leah Logan. I’m here on behalf of Indwell family of companies regarding the proposed lease agreement of Waterdown Road lands that we’re working to develop in partnership with the City of Burlington.  For those in the in the community who might not be aware of Indwell is a permanent supportive housing provider that brings interdisciplinary health supports into the buildings that we operate.  We operate over 14 150 units of permanent housing today across southern Ontario. We are focused on seeing our tenants grow in their health, wellness and belonging.

The individuals that we hope to house in our programs are your neighbours already. They are neighbours whose income makes it impossible for them to find and keep housing in Burlington at the moment, people on Ontario Disability Support Program are individuals who have been told they cannot work because they have a health condition, and these individuals are receiving $599 for rent on a monthly basis.

It is impossible to find housing for that rate in Burlington at this time. Folks who cannot work to help because of health struggles are becoming are being put in conditions of abject poverty. What we want to do is ensure that, at the very least, they have a home in their community. Today, you will receive information on the intended land lease agreement with Indwell.

We took Council’s concerns and suggestions from phase one of the land lease agreement process into our conversations with city staff, with a proposed lease agreement at hand. Items that we discussed included that the land lease will be contingent on in dwells ability to source support from both Halton Region and the federal government under build Canada homes, we also discussed we that we will work with access Halton access to community housing wait list, the hatch wait list, which is the housing system in place to offer those in need of affordable housing options in the city of Burlington. We also discussed that we are focused on building no more, no less, than 70 units of housing, recognizing that there is need in this community.

Having participated in a mayor and council town hall meeting last week, we heard that vacant land was posing a problem for neighbours in this community. This project is compelled to be built in a timely manner under the requirements through the Housing Affordable Fund (HAF)  affordability fund timelines and well is focused on meeting finally outside of the lease agreement end.

Indwell is committed to being a good neighbor, focused now on connecting with the community our new neighbors. We are eager to do so. Last week, I spoke to a new neighbor that was interested in preserving the streetscape of Waterdown Road.  We understand that interest and are focused on designing a building that complements the aesthetics of the community around us. We are intent on being transparent about our work, educating about our model, and seeking input from the community that we are excited to be a part of. We remain steadfast in not only being good partners to the city of Burlington, but good neighbours within the Aldershot community as well. We look forward to the next steps within this process, and we’re happy to answer any questions. You might have

Kearns: “Is it high acuity, mid, low. Can you give us some more information? Because I think that’s really the source of some of the push back, and I think this is a great forum to clear that up.”

Kearns: My question to you is this,  one of the pieces of information that I think hasn’t been fully explored across the community, while we respect the livelihoods of all of our neighbours, is who exactly will we be welcoming into the new housing opportunities that are being built here.

Leah: We will be welcoming individuals who are currently on the HATCH list ( Halton Access to Community Housing) wait list looking for affordable housing.

Kearns: Is it Burlington only?

Leah: Men, women, everybody.

Kearns: Is it high acuity, mid, low. Can you give us some more information? Because I think that’s really the source of some of the push back, and I think this is a great forum to clear that up.

Leah: For us, anyone on the HATCH wait list has the opportunity to decide the community that they want to live in, and so we’re presuming that with a hatch list, those that want to live in Burlington will be those that are sent our direction in the intake process, in terms of the acuity of the individuals that we serve, we are still understanding what that looks like. The program has not been defined, and yet we know that it’s individuals who need two things. They need deep affordability in their housing, and they want support as part of their housing and so for us that will be housing individuals that want support from staff in our buildings.

Stolte: “that’s a very different concept than what I thought we had talked about, which is ensuring that the Burlington dollars and Burlington taxpayer dollars are used for Burlington residents, existing Burlington residents.”

Councillor Stolte: I’m curious about the response to Councillor Kern’s question. I know that one thing we talked about the last time we had this question, this conversation in Chambers was about the focus on making sure that the Housing Accelerator Fund, which is meant to be for Burlington residents was used for Burlington residents. It sounded in your response when you said that it’s going to go to the hatch wait list for people who choose Burlington. So they very well may not be Burlington residents, and the reality is, is that they may not be choosing Burlington. They’re choosing to get housing, and if the housing exists and is offered in Burlington, they will move to Burlington to get the housing, which I don’t blame them for. That’s a very legitimate thing, but that’s a very different concept than what I thought we had talked about, which is ensuring that the Burlington dollars and Burlington taxpayer dollars are used for Burlington residents, existing Burlington residents. Can you clarify that?

Leah: Yes. One thing  I need to name is that this is a conversation I need to have with Halton Region staff as well, and those are some of the preliminary conversations that we’re having about who the referrals will be from the hatch wait list. And yet, I think we have seen in all of our programs, through any coordinated wait list, that the people that want to live in our communities are folks that are already in our communities. And so it’s a very natural progression in the intake process that those that are considered are those that actually are in the in the community, and want to be part of the community, so it’s, it’s not something, yeah, that that’s what I would say to that. If that makes sense.

Stolte: When we had had this conversation before, I thought there was some assurance that that conversation had already happened with the Region. Are you now saying that that conversation is not clear with the region as far as how the hatch wait list will be dealt with.

Leah: In terms of the process for this project, we first come to the city of Burlington, and with the approval, we then start conversations with Halton Region. We are in those stages of conversations, just at the beginning of looking at a how we get support from Halton Region and the regulations around that support as well, which tends to be around the hatch wait list and their expectations.

The City is moving with considerable dispatch to have a Building Permit in the hands of the Indwell people before the end of the year.

No conversation yet on what the building might look like.  There are some designs, but nothing definitive.