Ashley Doust has circled April 12 on her calendar.
One of 41 new homeowners that will call the Habitat For Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region condominium at 33 Leahy’s Lane home, that day will see the single mom — together with her 10-year-old daughter Emma — depart her parents’ house to realize her dream of home ownership.
On Sunday (April 3), following a celebrative dedication ceremony attended by a number of project partners as well as all 41 families, kawarthaNOW trailed behind Doust as she stepped into her finished first-floor two-bedroom unit for the first time.
“I never thought I would be able to own a home,” Doust said. “Without this opportunity, with the (housing) market as it is today, I’d never be able to get in. I didn’t want to throw my money into rent. When this opportunity came about, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I have to that.'”
“I worked really hard to make it happen. I applied in September 2020 and was approved in January the following year. It was like the best day ever when Sue (Habitat For Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region CEO Susan Zambonin) called me.”
Doust’s excitement, and that of each of her new neighbours, was palpable during both the ceremony and subsequent building tour.
“We are serving as many families this year as we’ve served in the last 20 … that is a true legacy,” said an emotional Zambonin during her overview of this journey, from idea and concept to shovels in the ground to completion.
“We are standing here because of the leadership of our trades, suppliers, and consultants who all said ‘We want to be part of what you’re doing.’ They have been working around the clock, through and around sickness and supply chain issues, and coordinating gift-in-kind and build donations. We are here to celebrate on day 412.”
“This journey begins and ends with our homeowners. Where you see a building, we see the homeowners — the people who are going to live in the homes that we have built.”
The building at 33 Leahy’s Lane has six one-bedroom units, 29 two-bedroom units, and six three-bedroom units. All units are energy efficient, accessible, and affordable, intended for families with a mixture of incomes of around $20,000 to $50,000 depending on family size.
To qualify for a condo, applicants need to prove they can repay an interest-free mortgage, with repayments geared to income, and that they do not have the means to get their own conventional mortgage.
Anyone familiar with the Habitat For Humanity story knows this project marks a dramatic departure from a tried-and-true formula that has seen 42 families move into safe and affordable single-family homes since the local agency was formed in 2002. This development marks the first time Habitat For Humanity in Canada has built a multi-unit building from scratch.
The norm also has seen successful applicant families help in the build of their homes, providing “sweat equity” as their contribution to their home’s construction. As the new homeowners at 33 Leahy’s Lane were prohibited from working on the building’s construction, primarily for logistic and safety reasons, they were required to provide volunteer hours and services in other ways.
They did just that, contributing more than 20,000 hours of their time to the benefit of Kawartha Food Share, Peterborough Regional Health Centre, and Fairhaven Long-Term Care, to mention just a few.
For Doust, that manifested itself in the form of painting two large murals that greet visitors to Habitat For Humanity’s ReStore locations in Peterborough and Lindsay, where she also volunteered.
According to Habitat For Humanity board chair Jill Bennett, the organization’s senior management first presented the board with “an innovative project to increase our impact, and provide homes to new demographics including singles, couple and seniors” three years ago.
“We sat in the boardroom with a piece of paper with a lot of numbers — really, really big numbers, mind-boggling numbers,” Bennett said. “They got the board’s support and here we are today.”
Bennett credited a number of partners, including the City of Peterborough through its Home Ownership Assistance Loan Program and Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan, with support totalling more than $800,000.
The federal government was a major financial partner for the project, investing $4.1 million as part of a $32.4 million financial commitment over the past three years under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund to support Habitat for Humanity Canada and its affiliate organizations across Canada.
Also credited with playing a major role in the development’s realization and the ability of new homeowners to finance their new homes were Habitat Canada, Kawartha Credit Union, Vancity Community Investment Bank, and Enbridge.
After the ceremony, Zambonin — clutching flowers presented to her — was still glowing.
“It’s huge to get something this big finished, but it’s also huge to have the confidence to do this again,” she said. “It’s not a one-off thing. We have a new mortgage model that helps to fund this. We can do so much more and faster.”
Zambonin noted other Habitat affiliates have purchased condos in existing buildings or built row houses that are condos, “but nothing like this — a three-storey building that’s all Habitat. That’s new across Canada.”
“Being as small as we are, doing something this big, Habitat Canada is watching and saying ‘OK, what can everyone else do?’,” she added.
Zambonin also pointed out that, while the new approach to multi-residential development has been proven do-able, the traditional Habitat home-building model won’t go by the wayside.
“That’s not going away, but we think the way we’re going to be able to have more of an impact is to build this (kind of development), build a few duplexes, and build a single (family home) all at the same time.”
Volunteers have always played a crucial role in Habitat’s traditional home-building model, but Zambonin noted there’s a limit to what they can do.
“What we’ve always done is try to figure out how to build faster with volunteers — we can’t,” she said. “Finally we’re realizing that if we do all of these things (multi-residential developments as well as single-family homes), we’ll have things at various stages.”
Of note, construction of a smaller 12-unit Habitat For Humanity condominium development has begun on a site that abuts the 33 Leahy’s Lane building.
But, at the end of the day, new homeowner Doust reminded everyone this story is about much more than bricks and mortar.
“They’ve helped 41 families, not just one. That is life changing.”
