Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta breaks ground on two new Medicine Hat affordable homes

Development support for the two homes is coming from the City of Medicine Hat, CF Industries, the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta, the Medicine Hat Realtors Charitable Foundation, the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, Habitat for Humanity Canada and BILD Medicine Hat.

Jeff Hodgson, vice-president of stakeholder and community engagement with Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta, said the Medicine Hat chapter continues to rely heavily on community-led initiatives to bring projects forward.

Hodgson said housing stability can have lasting effects on children’s education and long-term opportunities.

“We support families who are in need of affordable housing. That’s what we really specialize in,” Hodgson said.

“We believe in the outcomes for children who grow up in safe, stable homes, and what they’re able to achieve with that outcome,” he added.

“Where they don’t have to worry about moving every few years, uprooting, creating new friend groups, going to new schools with new teachers, where they can stay in one place.”

According to Hodgson, the Habitat has seen measurable outcomes from families who enter its homeownership program.

“We’ve seen that those children [who] move into these sorts of homes, a lot of them go on to become university graduates,” Hodgson said.

“We had one family who actually donated, the homeowner actually donated back to Habitat this year.”

Hodgson also spoke about the organization’s approach to keeping homes within the affordable housing system long-term.

“So we’re not just doing a one-time affordable housing, we’re hoping that these homes will remain for those families in need in the community,” Hodgson said.

“When a family goes through a program, and they’ve either paid their mortgage, they’ve graduated through it, or they wanna move into the market, and take their equity, and buy their own home,” he added.

“Then what we wanna be able to do is offer this to other families in need as well.”

Hodson said the Medicine Hat chapter is entirely volunteer-run, with local residents driving much of the work behind each build.

“We’re lucky that we’ve received support from all three levels of government for this project as well, and we help engage with different businesses and organizations in the community to help make this a reality,” Hodgson said.

The organization reaches communities across Alberta, with Chestermere being particularly significant.

“Whether it’s breaking ground, or doing completions, or just under construction, the scale at which we’re building right now is very impressive,” Hodson said.

“With our Chestermere project, we’re building 24 homes at once,” he added.

“So we’ve scaled up to doing full city blocks of homes in our province. And being able also to augment what we can do in the other communities, such as Medicine Hat [and] High River.”

Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta is currently recruiting prospective homeowners for the Medicine Hat build.

Information and eligibility screening are available through the organization’s website.

by Jett Schwaier

Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta breaks ground on two new Medicine Hat affordable homes

Our Community