A barbecue fundraiser for the driveway and walkway project for the second home build at 335 Juniper Dr. on June 8 at Thompson Christian Centre Fellowship barbecue raised another $10,026 for Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation's (TNRC) Our Home Kikinaw, said Pastor Ted Goossen. A total of $5,026 was raised and the church will match $5,000 for a grand total of $10,026.
"We're grateful for generous support for this project from church and community," he said. This is the third major fundraiser Thompson Christian Centre Fellowship has held for the home build, which is going to Tim and Laura Carter, along with their five children, Simon, Josiah, Adira, Isabel and Marigold. The home has been under construction since September 2011.
The Carters, who attend First Baptist Church, were chosen in July 2011 based on the criteria of family composition, current living conditions, willingness to partner, level of community involvement and ability to pay. They are required to put in 500 hours of volunteer work on the project, whether through labour or fundraising, and those hours count as their down payment. The homes are sold at fair market value and the proceeds, through mortgage payments, go to the TNRC. The interest-fee mortgage, which is held by TNRC, not a bank, and property tax payments are set based on the family's annual income, not the value of their home.
An earlier barbecue on June 3, 2012, netted $8,528.10 to support the Our Home Kikinaw "drywall project" for the 335 Juniper Dr. build. Thee goal had been to raise $7,000 through a combination of individual donations at the barbecue and a matching church donation dollar-for-dollar up to $4,000.
A pasta lunch fundraiser at Thompson Christian Centre Fellowship for the house on Nov. 20, 2011 raised $2,664.25.
While the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation's board of directors has governing responsibility overall for Our Home Kikinaw, a "community team" oversees the project with the assistance of the building, fundraising and family selection committees. "Thompson's model Habitat for Humanity project, Our Home Kikinaw was officially announced as a project of the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation" on Jan. 8, 2009, although work on planning the initiative dates back to at least 2008. "The project will assist low-income families in achieving homeownership by providing them with the opportunity to purchase a no-profit home, and aside from completing one home build by 2010, the ultimate goal of the project is to become a chapter of Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg (HFHW)," TNRC said on Jan 14, 2009.
Kikinaw is a Cree word for "our home" in English translation.
Millard Fuller founded Habitat for Humanity International in 1976. From humble beginnings in Alabama, he rose to become a self-made marketing millionaire at 29. But as the business prospered, his health, integrity and marriage suffered, he noted later. In 1965, Millard and his wife Linda turned away from their millionaire lifestyle and re-dedicated their lives to serving God. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, remain the best-known faces of Habitat for Humanity. Their involvement began in 1984 when the former president led a work group to New York City to help renovate a six-storey building with 19 families in need of decent, affordable shelter.
A non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry, Habitat for Humanity seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.
Through volunteer labour and donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses alongside the homeowner partner families. It is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment and monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labour or sweat equity into building their Habitat house and the houses of others. Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit and financed with affordable loans. The homeowners' monthly mortgage payments are used to build still more Habitat houses.
TNRC's published goal is to initially build five homes in five years through Our Home Kikinaw. They would have to build another three homes in the next between now and June 2015 to reach that goal.
The Lindsay family - Carey Anne, her sons Jordan and Tanner, and her daughter Keanna - were chosen in December 2009 to be the recipients of the first house, which is next door at 331 Juniper Dr. to the current home build. Construction started on the first home June 3, 2010. Construction continued on it until March 2011 and the Lindsay family moved in in April 2011.
The City of Thompson previously owned the two vacant lots on Juniper Drive behind the Manitoba Métis Federation building and across from St. Joseph's Ukrainian Hall where the first two Our Home Kikinaw home builds have gone side by side. The city donated the Juniper Drive lots for the Our Home Kikinaw project.
The Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation was granted an option to purchase a plot of land at 20 Pelican Cres. as the location for Our Home Kikinaw's third home in Thompson by a deeply divided council in a 5-3 vote Dec. 10, 2012. Council approved a $50,000 in-kind donation in the 2012 budget process to TNRC for the lot purchase. Coun. Stella Locker, a real estate broker, said the houses on either side of that lot are both worth upwards of $400,000.
