Habitat for Humanity is looking for a family to live in Landmark home

Habitat for Humanity Manitoba is looking for a family that would be interested in living in one of its homes in Landmark.

“We want a family that’s really looking to have a home of their own,” said Christina Falk, manager for chapter support.

“The situation of the family that was living in it, just their life situation changed, and they needed to move away. Which happens from time to time…but it’s kind of a unique situation because we won’t be going through the whole build process that we normally do for Habitat. It’s already ready to go.”

The home in Landmark was built in 2023 and is the last Habitat home built for the Southeast. The home is a bi-level, side-by-side, with four bedrooms (two up and two down), an open living/kitchen concept with an island and a walk-in pantry, and an attached single-car garage.

Normally, families who move into a Habitat home have to put in 500 hours of sweat equity into constructing the house, but this situation is unique as the home is already built so those volunteer hours will have to be spent on Habitat builds in Winnipeg or volunteering with community organizations in Winnipeg or Landmark.

Habitat has cleaned up the residence and performed minor repairs so that it’s move in ready.

In order to qualify for the Landmark home, the family needs to be Canadian citizens or permanent residents and parents need to have at least a two-year working history. At least one child needs to be under the age of 18, with Habitat giving preference to families with younger children. The parents can’t own another home in Canada.

For Michelle, a Habitat homeowner in the Southeast since April 2023, she applied to live in the home in 2019 after she saw a posting.

“I was in a marriage for 14 years and got out of it, so it left me a single mom, and I didn’t have the down payment (for a home). I was working really hard towards my credit and saving money, but I just wasn’t able to get a conventional loan for that.

“And then I saw a sign in (in the community) one day, and I just decided to go ahead and apply. And it was a lot of work, but I made it through and did it,” she said.

Michelle helped build her Habitat home putting in her 500 hours of sweat equity. Since moving into the house, her and her two children’s lives have been changed.

“Me and my daughter shared our own room, and now she has her own privacy, and she has her own room…So, going from an apartment to having our own space has changed us a lot,”

Habitat used to have a chapter covering the Southeast, an unusual model, from 1998 to 2023. Usually, Habibat has a group of volunteers from a community of at least 2,500 people, that focuses on building in that community. The Southeast chapter was different in that it wasn’t a group that ran it but two people, who had people in multiple communities in the Southeast find families for builds, which were done by contractors rather than community members. Fundraising was done all over the Southeast.

“At the time, they just wanted to be able to build in some smaller communities that wouldn’t be able to be big enough to host a chapter,” said Falk.

“So, the intention was great. We got to build in a lot of different communities that we wouldn’t normally be able to build in, right? So, it did work, you know, in that way. It did work for a while.”

During the 35 years that the Southeast chapter was active, 19 homes were built in the region south of Highway 1 and east of Highway 75. They built homes in Ste Agathe, Steinbach, Mitchell, Blumenort, La Broquerie, Richer, Grunthal, and other southeastern communities.

“They were very successful for the years that they ran,” said Falk, acknowledging that interest in the chapter had waned which ended it.

The costs to build a Habitat home have gone up “dramatically” in the last five years, according to Falk, who noted it costs about $250,000 (depending on building costs and excluding the land price) to build a Habitat home right now in Manitoba.

“But the thing about the program that we love is that these families are buying their home. We’re not giving the home away for free. They are buying them. They purchase them at market value, and then they’re paying a mortgage to us. There’s no down payment required,” said Falk.

Habitat doesn’t charge interest on the loan for 15 years and the monthly payments are based on 27 percent of the gross family income, which is a minimum of $35,500.

For example, Falk calculated that a combined family income of $55,000 would bring monthly payments to $1,200.

“So, every year we look at their notice of assessment and if their income goes up, then their payment goes up. And if their income goes down, then their payment goes down. And the reason it goes up, if their income goes up, is just we want them to be able to pay off as much of that mortgage as possible in those 15 years that we work with them because it’s interest-free,” said Falk.

The mortgage payments are reinvested into the organization so it can build more homes.

During the first 10 years of homeownership, Habitat holds the first right of refusal and will buy back the home if a family chooses to move. In these cases, the homeowner receives back all the payments they have made towards their mortgage, but they do not receive any equity appreciation from the home’s value during the years they lived in the home.

However, after the 10-year period, if the family decides to move and sell their home, they simply repay Habitat the remaining mortgage balance and may keep any additional equity they have earned through the sale.

Habitat used to have lifetime mortgages, but found that model was unsustainable for families and the organization.

Habitat for Humanity was established in Manitoba in 1987 as a not-for-profit housing organization. It has built more than 500 homes across the province and into Kenora, Ont. Last year, Habitat built 29 homes in Manitoba, the most of any year, and this year they’re projecting to build 31 houses.

The deadline to apply to live in the Landmark home is Feb. 20. All applications and requests for information can be directed to Falk’s email cfalk@habitat.mb.ca.