LONDON, ONT. -- Habitat for Humanity Heartland Ontario has more than 500 volunteers.
Normally it would help a family that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a house build a home.
But this week it has turned its sights on helping those who don’t have a place to sleep at all by renovating the shelter at the Unity Project on Dundas Street.
“Habitat has been given so much by so many organizations in the community, we're really glad to be giving back and helping out,” says George De Vlugt the General Manager of Construction for Habitat.
The Executive Director at Unity Project, Chuck Lazenby, says the work is long overdue.
“Their approach to doing the work and their approach to working with us has been so incredible, completely stress free.”
The volunteers are doing what they can to spruce the building up.
“We're painting, we're fixing some flooring, we're fixing some shelving, we're building a wall,” says De Vlugt.
“We're doing those odds and ends projects that just have been waiting around for a long time that finally needed to get done.”
The facility has been empty since the outbreak and the Unity Project shelter has been relocated.
Residents are now housed in a hotel and are waiting out the pandemic.
“People deserve to walk into a space that looks nice and that is functional,” says Lazenby.
“I think that it adds to people's sense of self-worth as well and you know that we value those individuals who are walking through our door.”
Habitat is more than happy to help and De Vlugt adds, “It's great that different non-profits are co-ordinating activities together to help each other out. I think that's critical for the future of non-profits that we're helping each other out meeting the goals to help out community.”
