‘Make or break’

Members of a local charity hope their raffle will land them some much needed resources in the coming months.

Habitat for Humanity Thunder Bay CEO Diane Mitchell said the charity has built four houses in the last two years. Because of that hectic pace, the organization now needs land if they want to continue.

"We’ve been working so hard and so fast and building so many houses we’ve increased our production and our capacity that it’s created this shortage,” Mitchell said.

“So it’s not that we’ve run out of land, it’s that we’ve built so many houses and been able to help so many families that it’s used up our land faster than we thought.”

Habitat for Humanity needs to buy land or have it donated. Ideally the lots should be in the downtown cores or the city’s East End, which are areas that boast having lower property taxes, Mitchell said.

"We try and build where the families can actually afford the property taxes and make their lives better," she said.

While a majority of the charity’s 22 houses have been built on donated land, Habitat for Humanity still needs to purchase land at times, which is why it also needs to raise more money.

The charity needs to sell out its annual cash raffle in order to do that, Mitchell said.

All 12,500 tickets must be sold by May 7.

Habitat for Humanity board of directors chair Andrew Campbell said the raffle only raised $80,000 last year, which is down from the $155,000 it brought in the year before.

If the raffle continues to slump, Campbell said the entire organization could be in jeopardy.

"If the raffle doesn’t perform, we’re not going to have the land to build and we’re not going to have the resources to put a house on land if we have land donated," he said. "This is make or break for us."