The COVID-19 pandemic may have dealt the cards, but local Habitat for Humanity personnel had a few cards up their sleeves..
With COVID severely impacting Habitat for Humanity Chatham-Kent’s efforts across the board since March of 2020, the charity still managed to put two people into houses already in 2022.
However, one was supposed to be done in 2020, while the other fell into Habitat’s laps.
Anne Taylor, volunteer manager with Habitat C-K, said this resulted in two families receiving homes this year, with the first being a build, and the latter being a buyback of the first house Habitat C-K built.
That house went up in 2013.
“We bought back (our build on) Bristol (Drive) – our first home we built in 2013,” Taylor said. “That family had graduated from the system and moved on. Habitat has the right of first refusal.”
So, with some new paint, a few renovations and touch ups, it was ready to accept a new family, which moved in at the end of January.
As for the build, which took place in Wallaceburg, it was a very odd experience for Habitat C-K personnel.
“The build was a bit different obviously for the fact we weren’t able to have any volunteers,” Taylor said.
Previous Habitat C-K builds have scores of volunteers. The pandemic made that impossible.
“This was originally supposed to be a 2020 build, but COVID hit. So her build got delayed a year,” Taylor said of the homeowner. “She was very patient, but with everything, it was an experience.”
Part of the experience, and in a good way, was Aubi, Agri Urban Builders Inc. of Dresden.
Mike Coyne, Habitat C-K ReStore director, said with no volunteers, they had to hire a builder.
“We had a conversation with them about what we wanted to do. We needed some help. They stepped up and supervised the project,” he said of Aubi. “They brought on tradespeople they were familiar with. Aubi basically took over everything and built the house for us.”
Even with a builder, it wasn’t smooth sailing. Coyne said supply and demand issues led to delays.
“We had hoped to be done in September. But the windows alone were nine weeks later than they were supposed to be,” he said. “We ended up putting the owner in at the end of February of this year.”
Coyne and Taylor said using a builder added to the expense, but the home needed to be completed.
“We just wanted to get it done. She had already waited a year,” Taylor said of the homeowner.
In the end, a mother and two daughters will live in the home on property donated by Bethel Pentecostal Church in Wallaceburg.
Taylor said watching a family come into their completed home for the first time never gets old.
“You still get goosebumps even though it was a different scenario,” she said. “They still freak out when they walk in the door. They can’t believe it is theirs. That will always put a smile on my face.”
With the two homes being filled, and the expense of buying back a home in today’s market, there will be no build this year.
“It costs us more to buy back a house than it does to build one. We took our 2022 build fund and used it up,” Coyne said.
And in the future, builds could begin to look a little different. Habitat C-K has property already in Thamesville, Chatham and Wallaceburg, but the overseers are also looking to take a different path at some point in the future.
“Ultimately, we would like to build multi-unit homes,” Taylor said. “We would like to be able to house more than one family at a time.”
Coyne said they’re looking for the right parcel of land to make that a reality.
“We could house more families faster,” he said. “Based on the demand that is out there in Chatham-Kent, it’s important for us to adapt and change.”
However, that is down the road. Coyne said he expects when 2023 rolls around, they’ll build on one of the lots they already have.
