Thompson's model Habitat for Humanity-like project, Our Home Kikinaw (OHK), was officially announced as a project of the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC) more than a year ago, although work on planning the initiative in its most recent incarnation dates back to at least 2008.
As consultant Tammy Lee Marche, of BullMarket Consulting Ltd., who served on contract for a time as housing co-ordinator for the TNRC, noted in 2008, "the population of Thompson is too small to be a Habitat for Humanity" affiliate. 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 that meeting, Hopkins told local participants that Habitat for Humanity Canada was unsure of what to do with Thompson. Although the community was interested in becoming a Habitat for Humanity affiliate, Thompson is too small to be an affiliate and too far away to be a chapter, Hopkins said. Nevertheless, she offered Habitat's full support and recommended Thompson utilize the structure and procedures of the organization, which is what has happened with TNRC and Our Home Kikinaw.
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 rededicated 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.
In 34 years, Habitat has built more than 350,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.75 million people in 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter.
The credit for bringing Our Home Kikinaw to fruition goes to Charlene Lafreniere, the executive director of Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation since September 2008, and TNRC community development co-ordinators Dawn Sands and Tara Howse. Formidable women all, they have been an effective triumvirate for Our Home Kikinaw.
Lafreniere has consistently championed housing issues, wearing her other hat as a member of Thompson city council since October 2006, and was one of the few members of council to end up on the right side, albeit in a losing effort, of the Rotary Park debacle last year.
Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation had planned to develop its first low-income multi-family four and five-bedroom townhouses and row homes in Thompson since 1990 at Rotary Park, but the project was killed by city council after a vociferous appearance at council by a delegation of Deerwood residents.
TNRC is a community development corporation working to support neighbourhood renewal initiatives by providing assistance to the community through funding and education. The Manitoba government's Neighbourhoods Alive! program provides core fundingto the organization whose vision is to create healthy homes and healthy communities through affordable, accessible housing, safe communities and cultural acceptance.
Last December, Carey Anne Lindsay, her 15-year-old son Jordan, eight-year-old son Tanner, and six-year-old daughter Keanna, were chosen as the first Our Home Kikinaw homeowners for a house to be finished by October on what was a vacant City of Thompson-owned lot behind the Manitoba Métis Federation building on Juniper Drive. The city gave the property to the Our Home Kikinaw project. Mayor Tim Johnston expressed his pride in the community-driven Our Home Kikinaw project.
"We've had this debate about housing for the last couple of years, and we've been promised a lot of sod turning. This is the first formal announcement of moving forward on a project," he notes. "We're very happy as the City of Thompson to be at the table and be able to contribute the land."
Said Lafreniere: "They are as diverse a family as we are a community. They are a blend of aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, and that means a lot to us. That's important because that's what reflects our community. That wasn't what made the decision but it's something we wanted to point out," Lafreniere said at the time.
There are plenty of others in Thompson working with TNRC to make Our Home Kikinaw a well-deserved success. Just one example is the Mennonite Thompson Christian Centre Fellowship, where moderator Keith Derksen, Larry Schroeder, a carpentry teacher at R.D. Parker Collegiate, and Gert Wilzer, another member of the church, who manages the Meetah Building Centre in Nelson House, presented a cheque for $13,200 to Sands for funds the building committee had raised through the church membership last summer.
Also, Mary Goossen and Yvonne Giesbrecht of the food committee, to help with the building committee's work on Our Home Kikinaw, held a fundraising pasta lunch last Nov. 8 attended by 88 people, which raised an additional $1,900. Pastor Ted Goossen said Wilzer "spurred our congregation on to get involved in this worthwhile community project this is a good way for our church to demonstrate our faith in action."
Just so indeed.
