Habitat for Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region (PKR) is inviting young area students to describe what home means to them and, in doing so, help support the organization’s local affordable housing efforts.

Habitat PKR is once again participating in the annual nationwide Habitat for Humanity contest called “Meaning of Home”. It involves students in grades 4 through 6 writing a short essay or poem to answer the question “What does home mean to you?”

For every contest submission, $10 will be donated on that student’s behalf to their local Habitat organization. At the conclusion of the contest, each grade will have one grand prize winner and three runners-up. Grand prize winners will receive a $30,000 grant for their local Habitat for Humanity, plus an iPad and a pizza party for their class. Runners-up will receive a $10,000 grant for their local Habitat, as well as an iPad and pizza party for their class.

“This initiative is so meaningful because it connects students with the concept of home while directly addressing the urgent need for affordable housing in our community,” Holly O’Connor, communications and marketing manager for Habitat PKR, told kawarthaNOW.

“Last year alone, we received over 300 calls from families and individuals seeking affordable housing. Every single student entry translates into $10 from Sagen to help us fund our upcoming multi-unit build projects right here in Peterborough and the Kawartha region. It’s a powerful example of how small actions, like writing an essay or poem, can create lasting change for local families in need.”

In the past, Habitat PKR has been fortunate to have local students win top prizes resulting in $10,000 grants for the organization, she noted.

“These funds are essential as we work toward providing affordable homeownership opportunities for families, seniors, and individuals, offering them stability, security, and the opportunity to thrive in our community,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor also hopes students take away something meaningful by participating in the project.

“We hope this contest inspires students to reflect on the importance of home and understand the impact it has on their lives and the lives of others that surround them,” she said.

“Through their essays and poems, we often see children sharing their heartfelt thoughts and emotions about what home means to them, and it is a powerful reminder of why affordable and safe housing is critical in our community. Beyond that, it’s also an opportunity for kids to see how their voices, creativity and compassion can contribute to impactful real-world solutions for families in their community.”

For Habitat PKR, the best outcome would be receiving as many entries as possible, and hopefully surpassing last year’s 305 entries.

“The funds from this contest can help us move closer to building the homes that local families and individuals need. But just as importantly, it’s about building awareness. When children, teachers, and parents engage in conversations about housing, it plants seeds of empathy and advocacy that can grow into long-term community support for affordable housing.”

There are three grand prizes of $30,000 grants, along with up for grabs through the contest.

In 2023, an entry from a student attending Saint Catherine Catholic Elementary School in Peterborough generated a $10,000 grant for the second phase of Habitat PKR’s Leahy’s Lane development.

The deadline for entries for the 2025 contest is February 21.

For more information about the contest and to enter, visit www.meaningofhome.ca.

Since its inception in 2007, the Meaning of Home contest has raised more than $2.7 million in support of Habitat for Humanity in Canada, with more than 120,000 students from across Canada participating. The contest is sponsored by Sagen, Canada’s largest private default mortgage insurance provider.

The City of Peterborough has exceeded its provincial target of annual housing starts for the second year in a row, qualifying it to receive additional funding from the Ontario government.

According to a media release from the city on Thursday (January 9), the city issued permits for 515 housing units to residential construction developers in 2024, exceeding the provincial target of 392 housing starts by 123 units, or 31 per cent.

“Surpassing our targets two years in a row demonstrates real progress, but we know there’s still more work to be done,” Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal says in the release. “It’s vital that we keep up the momentum and continue to work closely with residential construction developers, community partners and other organizations to keep progress on track.”

In August 2023, the Ontario government assigned housing targets to 50 municipalities including Peterborough as part of a provincial plan to build at least 1.5 million homes by 2031. Once the head of councils pledged to achieve their municipalities’ housing targets, they became eligible for funding from the Building Faster Fund.

Announced in 2023, the three-year $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund is designed to encourage municipalities to address the housing supply crisis by providing funding to municipalities that have reached at least 80 per cent of their provincially assigned housing target for the year, with increased funding for municipalities that exceed their target. Municipalities can direct the funding toward housing-enabling infrastructure and other related costs that support community growth.

For the City of Peterborough, the provincial government assigned a total housing target of 4,700 by 2031, including a target of 345 housing starts in 2023, 392 in 2024, and 470 in 2025.

Last January, the city reported it had issued permits to start construction on 435 housing units in 2023, exceeding that year’s provincial target by 90 units, or 26 per cent.

Two months later, the Ontario government announced it was providing the city with $1.88 million in funding from the Building Faster Fund as a reward for exceeding the 2023 housing target.

While the province has not yet announced allocations to municipalities from the Building Faster Fund for 2024 targets, based on the 2023 allocation the city could expect to receive more than $1.88 million.

Of the 515 housing units for which the city issued permits in 2024, 346 were apartment-style units. The city estimates the total value of constructing the 515 housing units at around $101.2 million.

The city’s announcement that it has exceeded its 2024 target comes just over two months after the release of the Mayor’s Task Force for Housing Creation, which included 15 recommendations from a group of local housing sector experts to facilitate residential housing development in the city.

In early December, city council approved seven of the recommendations to be implemented immediately, including a one-year approval timeline for qualifying projects, and directed city staff to return to council in April 2025 with a report on the remaining eight recommendations.