The organization, which builds affordable housing for families in need, kept the hammers swinging and the volunteers busy thanks to the province’s COVID-19 declaration that construction was an essential service.
The rank and file of Habitat volunteers has increased post-pandemic as people are getting back into the community looking for ways to help, while the need for affordable housing is rising. Habitat provides interest-free homes with no down payment and relies on donations of time, materials and funding from the community. The organization chooses its future homeowners from thousands of applications received annually.
In 2021, Habitat housed eight families in a Radisson Heights townhouse development in the southeast. The organization is currently completing 16 new units in the northwest community of Silver Springs, due to be finished in early 2023. It’s also poised to break ground on 11 new townhomes in Cornerstone, an emerging neighbourhood in northeast Calgary.
Habitat entered the 2021 Building Industry and Land Development Calgary Region awards for the first time ever and two floor plan designs were short-listed. Moseley says the finalist nominations reflected Habitat’s offer first-class housing that is affordable and beautiful.