Winkler city council has voted to extend the Headstart to a Home program by another two years.
Ten families have made use of the program since it launched in late 2023 as a partnership between the City of Winkler, Lux Construction Inc., and Access Credit Union.
Under the agreement, Lux committed to building nearly 50 new homes on Yellowstone Trail in north Winkler and providing a discount on the purchase price for each one purchased through the program, Access provided insured mortgages to qualifying home buyers and an interest-free loan for the down payment of five per cent of the purchase price for five years, and the City of Winkler provided security to Access to make those down payment loans possible. Choice Realty handled the sale of the homes.
“We initially didn’t have as much uptake on it as we anticipated,” shared Mayor Henry Siemens, noting the Winkler housing market has been so competitive that some of the houses sold incredibly quickly—sometimes before they were even built—without the need for Headstart support.
“But after a slow start, we were able to gain some momentum and get some people into home ownership who wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, which is a big part of the reason that we’re extending it.
“When people want to be [home] owners, we believe it creates a healthier, more stable, less transient community,” the mayor noted. “So when people are in a position that they can’t find their way on their own, if there’s a way that we can help without risk to the rest of the community, we certainly want to be involved in those discussions.”
The City of Winkler has set aside funding in a GIC account for the program, which allows them to commit to cover 50 per cent of the five per cent down payments should any of them go into default.
That hasn’t happened on any of the loans so far, and, based on the success of these types of programs in other communities, Siemens isn’t worried that will change.
“Historically, as we’ve looked at these types of programs, usually when people who wouldn’t be able to find their way to housing ownership in any other way, the chance of there being a default is extremely low,” he said. “People will prioritize this payment over almost any other payment, so these types of loans, whenever they’re made available, the default rate is exceptionally low, and that’s what we’ve seen here so far … there’s been no default whatsoever.”
And people making use of the Headstart program still need to meet all the usual income requirements for securing a mortgage, Siemens noted.
The program right now is linked to Lux Construction and the Yellowstone Trail development, but Siemens said the City would be open to hearing from other developers who may have similar ideas for helping get more people into their own homes.
“The demand for home ownership is still through the roof,” he pointed out. “We think that there will be continued interest in this program.
“This program right now is specifically for this developer, this project, but we’re open to conversations with other developers and other realtors … we’re very interested in helping people find their way to home ownership.”
