Nicole McKay just wants a place she and her family can call home.
Thanks to Habitat for Humanity’s active search to include an Aboriginal family in its Thunder Bay program, the McKay family’s wish has come true.
"I feel overwhelmed," said McKay, who bought the Banning Street home, which was first built by Habitat in 2001 and occupied by another family since 2002.
"I’m very appreciative that we were able to get into this program, because it is an opportunity for our family. For my family to have our own home is going to mean a lot to us. This is an opportunity for us not to have to keep moving from place to place. This is ours.
"We don’t have to feel like it’s somebody else’s. They can play as loud as they want and they’re settled. That’s something that’s really important to our family."
There’s also plenty of space, something the family of five wasn’t afforded at their most recent residence.
McKay, husband Wesley and children Hailey, Jessie and Nicole, love each other very much, but it’s nice to have some privacy too, 10-year-old Hailey said.
"It makes me really happy. I won’t be too close to my little brother and sister," the youngster said.
All it took was half an hour dedicated to filling out the proper forms, McKay said.
Habitat for Humanity CEO Diane Mitchell, who said there are about 10 families applying to buy every home the charity builds, said they’ve spent the past 18 months searching for an Aboriginal family to join the local program.
It hasn’t been easy, she said.
"I think that it seemed overwhelming to own a home. They didn’t know that it was really possible. The paperwork seemed a bit overwhelming. It was about communicating what the Habitat for Humanity program was all about, making sure that we communicated what we needed from families and allowed them access and met them on their terms in their organizations to help them fill out the applications and be approved," Mitchell said.
The organization builds home and arranges interest-free mortgages for qualified families.
Mitchell said it costs Habitat about $75,000 to build each home. In 2010 they built two new homes and renovated the Banning Street address.
"Raising those funds is the utmost importance to us right now; also securing land so we can build the homes. We have the families, we have the volunteers. What we need is money and land to build houses to meet the needs."
This particular home represents everything Habitat stands for, she added. The original family’s children grew up and moved out on their own, leaving the mother with too much space. She sold the home back to Habitat, keeping any equity, allowing the charity to house its 22 nd family.
McKay said being accepted into the program was a life-changing event for her family.
"We did the best we could. We did have a large backyard (at our last home), but the size of this house wants to make us stay home and want to spend time together in our home," she said.
Well, as long as little brothers and sisters don’t get too close.
