Home ownership within their grasp

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2017 (2981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just two days ago, it was a dizzying array of boards and beams intersecting at angles that would make an observer feel like they were standing in the middle of an optical illusion.

On Wednesday, the boards formed recognizable shapes — 21 houses were standing on the former site of the St. James police station, where Habitat for Humanity volunteers are building the homes in a week.

The permanence of the structures reflects a stability in life Charles Harper is glad for. Harper, owner of the first house on the new block, moved through the Child and Family Services system as a youth, never staying in one place long.

“I was in Winnipeg, went to Selkirk, went to St. Andrew’s, went to Island Lake, went to God’s Lake, to Thompson, back to God’s Lake. I was all over the place,” said Harper, now a youth-care practitioner who works with high-risk children through Macdonald Youth Services.

He’s happy he and his wife, Christine, can give their children the stability he never had. The couple has three children and is currently fostering two others.

“‘Oh, Dad, I can’t wait until we move in! I love this,’” Harper recalled his six-year-old son, Pierson, saying when he saw pictures of the progress.

Children aren’t allowed on the Winnipeg build site, but every family on the new block has some.

Harper thinks it’s great the neighbourhood will be full of children whose families have gone through the construction process together.

His children will no longer have to share rooms, as they currently do in Manitoba Housing. And the family will be able to plant trees.

“I want my kids to grow up with those trees because our culture, our background (believes) the spirit is with every living organism,” he said.

The house will welcome more life when the family adopts a dog — something Harper’s four-year-old daughter, Rosalyn, insists they do.

As his hammer struck nailheads, Harper was thinking about his grandfather, Mordy White, who was a carpenter in God’s Lake.

“It’s kind of emotional because I know if he was still around, he would’ve liked to hear about it,” Harper said.

He said he remembers sitting with his cousins and watching his granddad turn boards into homes until he got cancer. Then, Harper would sit on the couch and talk to White about construction.

“There was a lot of times when he was in pain… the pain just went away when he talked about building,” Harper said, noting White passed away in 2014.

But Harper’s favourite part of the building process is the energy in the rain-soaked air as 500 people, many of them strangers, work side-by-side to complete the 21-house project.

“When I was putting up the walls, I was cheering… celebrating together after putting in effort, it just feels amazing,” Harper said.

“When I was going foster home to foster home… you meet some people that make you feel so welcome, then you meet some people that make you feel like strangers, like you don’t belong there. So I learned not to trust people. Right now, I’m just more open because this is a really positive atmosphere… I’m at an all-time high right now,” Harper said.

Habitat for Humanity wanted a good portion of this year’s Manitoba homes to go to Indigenous people because it was important to the organization’s most famous boosters: former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and his wife, former first lady Rosalynn. The Carters have been involved with Habitat since 1984, and the 92-year-old former president will be on the Winnipeg site today.

Eight of the 21 new city homes will house Indigenous families.

“There is an enormous need for affordable homes for Indigenous families across the country,” said Jay Thakar, manager of Habitat for Humanity Canada’s Indigenous housing program.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Wednesdays

A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom.

Sign up for Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Applicants accepted by Habitat must pay market value for their homes through a pay schedule that’s based on income. At least one adult must be working full time and have been doing so for at least the past two years.

Other requirements are a housing need, 500 hours of sweat equity, a willingness to be completely transparent in the transaction, and children in the household.

The process is intense and intrusive in the hope it’ll avoid setting a family up for failure, said Sandy Hopkins, the chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity Manitoba.

After the houses are constructed, volunteers will make way for professionals to complete the final touches such as plumbing, electrical and heating.

stefanie.lasuik@freepress.mb.ca