It was plenty of smiles and some tears on the weekend when Habitat for Humanity, Saint John Region dedicated a new home to the Sutherland Family in St. Stephen.
CEO Kevin Perry says the homes that Habitat builds are mortgaged directly to families with no interest and no down payments.
Instead, the family agrees to contribute 500 hours of ‘sweat equity’ or volunteer hours as their down payment.
CEO Kevin Perry says it took close to a year but the home is now theirs.
“They applied for a Habitat home and were successful in their application the Town of St. Stephen was gracious enough to gift us a piece of land a year or so ago,” said Perry.
One of their partners is NBCC Saint Andrews and Perry says the students get some real hands-on experience in homebuilding.
“They built a home with the students that do their carpentry, plumbing and electrical program and throughout the school year they created the home, and the home was then transported to St. Stephen and placed on a foundation we had poured,” stated Perry.
The Sutherland Family, Troy and Jennifer and their 3 boys, Cody 11, Kristopher 8 and 6-year-old Caleb now have their new home.
It was the second Habitat for Humanity Home built in the region, earlier in the year one was dedicated in Grand Bay-Westfield.
Perry says they are not done yet.
“On Monday, December 23, and this is breaking news, by the way, we are officially dedicating our third home of the year to a Quispamsis single mom with three girls.”
Habitat brings communities together to help families build strength, stability and independence through affordable homeownership and their vision is a simple one–“A world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live”.
