We have long supported Thompson's model Habitat for Humanity-like project, Our Home Kikinaw (OHK), which was officially announced as a project of the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC) on Jan. 8, 2009, although work on planning the initiative dates back to at least 2008.
We still support Our Home Kikinaw, but a chronic shortage of volunteers, its inability to find a replacement for Larry Schroeder, a former carpentry teacher at R.D. Parker Collegiate, who acted as construction manager for the first build, after he moved away, and the current controversy of asking the City of Thompson for a third free lot for a home at 20 Pelican Cres. in Westwood, well before the second home on Juniper Drive is finished, suggest the sooner they become an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg, the less likely the whole thing is to go off the rails.
Sandy Hopkins chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg (HFHW), met with TNRC staff, and interested community representatives from several local businesses and organizations to introduce the Habitat for Humanity model to Thompson in March 2008. At the time, the population of Thompson was considered to be too small to be a Habitat for Humanity affiliate. At that meeting, Hopkins told local participants that Habitat for Humanity Canada was unsure of what to do with Thompson.
Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg, however, has changed their position on the issue of size over the last five years and no longer require a population base of 50,000 people.
Although, the community was interested in becoming a Habitat for Humanity affiliate, Thompson was considered too small back in 2008 to be an affiliate and too far away to be a chapter, Hopkins said, but offered Habitat's full support and recommended Thompson utilize the structure and procedures of the organization. TNRC, in fact, says the Our Home Kikinaw project "is structured in accordance with Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg's policies and procedures" and "the ultimate goal of the project is to become an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg." The sooner the better.
TNRC's goal is to build five homes in five years through Our Home Kikinaw. They will have to build another three homes between now and June 2015 to reach that goal. The City of Thompson previously owned the two vacant lots behind the Manitoba Métis Federation building and across from St. Joseph's Ukrainian Hall on Juniper Drive where the first two Our Home Kikinaw home builds have gone side by side. The city has donated all three the lots for the Our Home Kikinaw project.
The second Our Home Kikinaw home in Thompson will belong to the Carter family, made up of Tim and Laura Carter, along with their five children, Simon, Josiah, Adira, Isabel and Marigold. The family was 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. The Carters 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.
Tim Carter, who works in maintenance and security at Glacier MDS Aero Test Centre, and his wife, Laura, who home schools their five children, currently live in a townhouse on Eastwood.
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 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.
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.
