Habitat for Humanity in Halton

With the current Metroland Poverty series it was especially poignant to listen to Mavis O'Neil give an inspiring talk at Faith United this morning as an ambassador for Habitat for Humanity in Halton. While I have known of Habitat for Humanity for many years I gained a new deeper insight this morning, in particular how it has positively impacted the local Halton region. Well done Mavis. Here is some info from the Habitat for Humanity Halton website

Habitat Halton was founded in 1999 by a group of individuals from Port Nelson United Church. Our first chairman was Peter Fisher, a long time resident of Burlington. Initially, we served only Burlington, however in July 2002; we became Habitat for Humanity Halton. We were granted charitable status in March 2000. To date, we have built and sold seventeen homes to hard-working, local families with mortgages structured so they can afford them. Five homes are in Burlington, three condos in Burlington, two are in Acton, four are in Georgetown, two homes in Oakville, and one in Milton. In the spring of 2011, the HomeWORKS program was launched. HomeWORKS is a series of free financial sessions. These session/workshops help people build on the skills needed to handle everyday $$$ challenges. This program offers tools to build and manage a budget along with money saving tips.

I understand that they aim to build another 24-28 homes in Halton in the coming years. I asked Mavis how Habitat for Humanity integrates with the goals of Milton Transitional Housing and Halton Poverty Roundtable. She strongly believes that each group has a slightly different and complementary objectives and that the collaboration and work of the multiple groups can only contribute to the increasing awareness of the challenge for those at risk of homelessness and poverty in Halton. Similar to MTH it began with a small group of passionate individuals who recognised that they needed to take action.