Habitat for Humanity tackles affordable housing
By Contributor
In January, 2016 Habitat for Humanity Southeast BC Nelson Chapter was created.
Since that time, the Chapter has been busy finding a partner for the vacant home in Castlegar.
Now that the Chapter has successfully entered into a partnership agreement with a wonderful family, there’s a new project in the Nelson area.
Habitat for Humanity Canada’s Mission is to mobilize volunteers and community partners in building affordable housing and promoting homeownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Here in Nelson the need for affordable housing has never been greater.
In order to qualify as a partner family, applicants must meet financial criteria for need as well as ability to pay.
Good credit scores are essential and though partner families are not required to come up with a down payment, they are however required to complete 500 hours of sweat equity. There are a variety of ways that these hours can be accrued.
After successfully completing their volunteer hours, the partner family is then able to purchase the home from Habitat for Humanity at a zero per cent mortgage. Mortgages from the partner families provide much needed seed funding for new builds.
To qualify, the minimum and maximum combined gross income for a family (adult members) in Nelson is:
- 3 bedroom house $35,000 (Min) — $47,000 (Max)
- 4+bedroom house $35,000 (Min) — $54,000 (Max)
HFH Nelson Chapter currently has an existing single five bedroom home available for a qualified partner family.
HFH Nelson would be accepting applications for this home however, the Chapter has plans for future homes so a list of qualified families will be generated for those future homes.
Applications are now available and can be picked up at the Community Futures Office, 201-514 Vernon St., Nelson.
The office is open 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday OR to request an electronic application, e-mail habitatnelson@gmail.com.
The completed application must be sent by mail to: Habitat for Humanity SEBC-Nelson Chapter, Suite 77, 622 Front Street, Nelson, BC V1L 4B7. The deadline for submission is April 15, 2017.
For more information about HFH please check out the website at http://www.hfhsebc.org/
HFH Nelson is also seeking interested individuals in our community to join our team either for the Family Services or Building Committees as well individuals who would like to help on a single project on existing houses or new builds.
Anyone interested please e-mail habitatnelson@gmail.com
