Over the past five years, the Winkler-Morden chapter of Habitat for Humanity Manitoba has helped six families achieve home ownership who might otherwise never have been able to make that dream a reality.
Now they’re looking for family number seven.
“We have had a lot of people asking when are we taking applications again?,” says chapter rep Christina Falk. “The answer’s now.”
The agency has put a call out for applications from families who meet Habitat’s criteria, which includes:
- Having an annual family income between $35,500 and $90,500. “A lot of people think of us as working only with very lower income families, but we do work within a range,” Falk says. “If your family is in that range, then you quality.”
- Employed in the Winkler-Morden area for at least two years. “We want to make sure that you are settled here and that you’re able to keep your job here,” Falk explains.
- Having Canadian citizenship or permanent residency status.
- Are currently renting their home.
- Have children under the age of 18.
- Are willing to put in 500 hours of “sweat equity” volunteering either in the community and/or with the build of their new home.
if you’re a family with kids that’s currently renting, we probably would like to talk to you,” Falk says
The selected family will purchase an affordable home from Habitat with a no down payment, no interest mortgage and monthly mortgage payments scaled to their income.
“The biggest thing for most people is because they’re paying so much for rent, they struggle to save up a down payment for a house,” Falk says. “So they’re making their rent payments, but they just can’t get that down payment together to buy a home.”
The Habitat model, which relies on community donations and volunteers to help with the builds, gets those families into their own homes, with the resulting mortgage payments then helping the agency build homes for other families.
“This is a proven model. It works,” Falk stresses, noting the importance of building new homes during the ongoing housing crisis and alleviating some of the stress in the rental market by getting families out of it entirely. “We need rentals for sure, and we have a ton of rentals going up in the area … but we really think home ownership should still be a part of the solution.
“The hurdle for us is always finding the money,” she adds. “We have all the plans ready to go, and if we can get funding, we can build housing here.”
The agency is accepting family applications from now until March 31. If you’ve applied in the past, you do need to reapply to be considered.
The selection process is an extensive one; Falk estimates it will take upwards of six months for a family to be chosen, and the actual build won’t start until spring of next year.
“We hope to start in May or June of 2026, but that’s always dependent on our funding, how much we can fundraise,” she says.
Where the house is going up hasn’t been decided yet, though the last Habitat build was in Winkler so the chapter is really hoping to build the next in Morden. Falk urges families in both communities to apply, though, as the selected family might impact which community they opt to go with.
“We’d like to build equally in both communities, but it depends on where we get land—we don’t have any land right now,” she says.
For more information about applying to be a Habitat family, email families@wm.habitat.mb.ca.
