Habitat home 'dropped' into place in Goderich, Ont.

Goderich, Ont. -

For about 30 minutes Monday, Habitat for Humanity’s latest home in Huron County literally 'hung' in the balance.

“It’s a really big day. We’ve done a lot of work to get to this point, and we’re seeing that come to fruition today,” says Bill Don, a board member with Habitat for Humanity-Huron.

Instead of building from the ground up, like most Habitat homes, Habitat for Humanity-Huron teamed up with Royal Homes in Wingham, to construct a pre-fabricated home.

That means most of the potentially dangerous construction work, like roofing, has already been done by professionals and the home is simply delivered, secured and set up, ready for volunteers to finish off.

“Working with Royal Homes has been fantastic. And we still have a lot of jobs left that volunteers can and want to do, like painting and putting up trim, or installing doors, so it’s a great partnership with Royal Homes,” says Habitat for Humanity-Huron Executive Director Cheryl Jefferson.

The recipients of this new partnership in Goderich are Patti Jenkins and her two girls, Mowava and Lia.

“I’ll finally be able to give my kids stability, with a forever home, somewhere to call home. It’s fantastic,” says Jenkins.

Habitat for Humanity-Huron has built 15 homes since their creation in 2005. That’s one a year. They have aspirations to double that going forward.

“We want to up our game and do a minimum of two family homes per year, and if we can, maybe four per year, that would be great,” says Jefferson.

But, that will depend greatly on fundraising which, as with most charitable organizations, has been greatly affected by COVD-19.

“We’re still raising funds to finish this house, and to do the next one,” says Habitat Huron Board Chair Bill Mcauslan.

Habitat’s next build in Huron County happens in January in Hensall.

The Jenkins family is expected to move into their Blake Street home in Goderich early in 2022.