1st Habitat for Humanity rises in Milton

I was delighted to see the new and first Habitat for Humanity house going up in Milton off Bronte Street South.

It is great to see another family being provided a helping hand of a different sort. It marks an important milestone for another housing project partner, Habitat for Humanity. We will keep you posted.

Milton Transitional Housing latest tenant of Habitat for Humanity

It is a wonderful new chapter for both Habitat for Humanity Halton and Milton Transitional Housing as they partner together with a shared base in Milton.

Wednesday the Milton Transitional Housing Board and volunteers were invited to a Team Gathering at the Habitat for Humanity Restore location at 25 Brown Street in Milton. This is the site of the Old Post office opposite the Milton Town Hall. Milton Transitional Housing has two offices and a Boardroom within the Milton Restore.

Mirela Vukosa Giannidis, Director of People and Community Engagement at Habitat for Humanity in Halton desribed it as "a wonderful beginning to an exciting journey". She reminded us that Milton has the lowest opportunity for affordable rentals in Ontario. She added that they are "thrilled to be partnering and working together with Milton Transitional Housing". Habitat for Humanity started back in 1999 and have 3 home ownership properties already this year alone. They now have 20 low income hard working families through home ownership with a longer term goal of 75.

Donna Danielli, Executive Director for Milton Transitional Housing updated the group on how MTH is evolving and meeting the needs of its three clients. The volunteer ambassador training sessions were warmly greeted as a tremendous to raise awareness. Many are surprised by the level of need in Milton.

Come and visit the Milton Restore location to see for yourself.

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.