Habitat For Humanity hopes to raise $325,000

The Mountain View chapter of Habitat For Humanity (MVHFH) has obtained title to a piece of land in Olds donated by the town.

Now they want to raise $325,000 so they can build two duplexes on that site to house two families. If all goes well, MVHFH hopes to begin construction of those homes in the fall of 2016.

“That gives us about 10 months to try and gather that kind of money. So that's our big push right now – fundraising. Fundraising and finding partner families,” says MVHFH family services chair Amy Christiansen.

The land is located in east Olds, just east of the Greyhound station.

Christiansen says members of MVHFH have some ideas for fundraising projects. One such project, undertaken by Christiansen's Interact class at École Deer Meadow School, was to create gift builder catalogues.

“It kind of is like a virtual gift. You go into the catalogue and you say, ‘I want to buy a tool belt for $50,'” she says. “The $50 goes to Habitat, the tool belt stays with Habitat and then the receiver of the gift gets a card that says ‘thank you for your donation to Habitat For Humanity.'”

MVHFH also hopes to be one of the charities to benefit from the second annual Spring Fling in Olds.

It's a big community party spearheaded by Rotary and Kiwanis clubs with help from other local groups and businesses.

Four not-for-profit causes receive 100 per cent of the ticket price. Funds are allocated to those groups via a People's Choice vote.

Ticket holders vote for their favourite cause and at the end of the event, the cause with the most votes receives 50 per cent of the funds. The remaining 50 per cent of ticket sales is divided equally between the other three causes.

“We've got our application in there but we haven't heard anything yet,” she says.

However, she notes the application deadline is Jan. 15, so they may hear after that date.

Christiansen notes there are several criteria those hoping to obtain a HFH home must meet.

“The first thing is need,” she says. “They need be a family with children. They need to be living in living conditions that are inadequate in structure, safety or size right now and their rent is too much for their family to sustain. They have to have the ability to cover a mortgage.

“They have to be able to pay a mortgage payment, which would be through Habitat For Humanity. So one person in the household has to be employed and have a good work history.”

Applicants must also have a low income but a good credit rating. They must also be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

So far, the Mountain View chapter of Habitat For Humanity has built nine Habitat For Humanity homes in Olds, Didsbury, Sundre, Carstairs and Cremona.

Christiansen says they'd love to build more homes for people who need them, but “in order to have our project continue, which we would love to have happen, we have to have land,” she says.

“That's always our first step. We look to what happened in Olds with the donation of land by the town; that was really great; or any other way that affordable land can come in our direction. That's always where we need to start.”

Christiansen says so, far, MVHFH doesn't have any projects besides the two Olds duplexes planned but she's hopeful that will change.

“We don't have anything lined up right now, but hopefully, as this project begins to take form and people see the homes going up, that's usually when people are a little bit more cognizant of the process and they can see what's happening and kind of think forward to how they can help out with the next build,” she says.

To learn more, readers are urged to go to this website: habitatforhumanitysouthernalberta.

“That's where they can go to do three things: make a donation, give your time, or apply for a home,” she says.