Habitat for Humanity NWT breaks ground on largest project yet

Families could be moving into a new housing development in Yellowknife’s Niven neighbourhood as soon as October this year.

On Thursday, Habitat for Humanity Northwest Territories – joined by MP-elect Rebecca Alty, MLA for Yellowknife North Shauna Morgan and city councillor Rob Warburton – broke ground on the non-profit’s largest housing project yet: two prefabricated duplexes, each containing two units.

Each unit of the housing project will be energy efficient with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, according to Alex Davidson, president and board chair of Habitat for Humanity NWT.

The land where the units will sit was donated by Housing NWT, which also contributed $400,000 for the site development and $200,000 for construction, said Michael Saturnino, associate deputy minister of housing sustainability and partnerships with Housing NWT.

“Partnering with Habitat for Humanity really enables us to explore new ways to expand housing availability throughout the territory,” said Saturnino.

Alayna Ward, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity NWT, said applications for potential residents will open on Thursday.

She said there are three main criteria to be eligible, which include being in need of housing, your ability to pay for the housing, and willingness to partner with the organization.

“Typically, we find a lot of applicants are either living in a home that’s too small for their family’s needs or they’re living in rental housing that is unsuitable or feels unsafe, may not have proper heating – that sort of thing – or that it’s unaffordable,” said Ward.

She said a typical misconception about the organization is that it offers free housing. Instead, Habitat offers homeownership without a down payment and with an interest-free mortgage.

Housing payments, Ward said, are capped at 30 percent of the total household income.

This year, applicants must have a minimum household income of $90,000, which has been calculated by Habitat for Humanity as the threshold required to sustain homeownership.

In lieu of a down payment, families have to commit to 500 hours of volunteer work in the community or on the house build.

“We’ve had families volunteering at Avens, at the hospital, at their kid’s school,” said Ward. “Yellowknife is such a vibrant community and there’s lots of volunteer opportunities.”

The homes are expected to arrive on site by June and be occupied by October.

Councillor Warburton said he appreciated that dense housing is being built.

“Single-family homes are lovely but we can fit more on one lot, so I love that,” said Warburton.

“It’s prefabricated, so we’re moving to a really efficient way of building. I’m super excited to see something go from this to housing by the fall.”

He said one of the barriers to more projects like this one in Yellowknife is access to land, adding the city is working to open up more lots.

“I’d like to see a lot more city land on the market so we can have this option for non-profits or whoever wants to build housing,” said Warburton.