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Home > About UDI - Calgary > Our Featured Charity
Our Featured Charity: Habitat For Humanity
UDI - Calgary's membership supports Calgary's Habitat for Humanity commitment of providing affordable housing and promoting home ownership to break the cycle of poverty and create an environment where every family can meet their potential.
How UDI Contributes:
UDI - Calgary provides both monetary support and promotional opportunity to Habitat for Humanity. At our monthly luncheons, a donation to Habitat is made on behalf of the speaker in lieu of a gift. Our most successful contribution is our annual golf tournament tool drive. Members fill the tool truck or make a donation, and all money collected from the sale of mulligan's goes toward Habitat. The Tournament Banquet is a great opportunity for our members to hear from Habitat about their up and coming projects and any additional support they need. During our annual Christmas Reception, Habitat for Humanity representatives are on hand to collect donations, answer questions and encourage support from our members and guests.
Current Habitat Projects:
Currently, there are three homes under construction in Calgary - a single family home in Evanston and a duplex in New Brighton. Both projects were started in the early months of this year and we expect three families will be calling them home by the coming spring.
Message from Calgary Habitat for Humanity
It's been an exciting time for the city of Calgary. The constant energy of Calgarians and the economic boom has fueled some great success stories for most Calgarians. However, there is a downside to these remarkable times. Not everyone is feeling the prosperity and success this city has to offer. The financial strain of Calgary's inflated cost of living is on the faces of every family we help. They are the working poor. They look like any other Calgarian; they are dads, moms, even sons and daughters who are trying very hard to make ends meet in a very expensive city. They aren't asking for much. They just need a break - a hand-up to get them going. That's where Habitat for Humanity comes in. We provide these working families with the life-changing opportunity to become homeowners. We help them build homes, so they can help their children have a stable foundation to build a future. Without the generosity of donors like UDI; as well as the many other caring corporations, service clubs and individuals, who donate to Habitat for Humanity, we would not have been able to build close to 100 homes in Calgary since 1990. We are not a band-aid to the low-income housing crisis in Calgary, we are a solution. We've been putting families in stable, decent affordable homes for almost 20 years and we're on track to double our capacity in the next 3 years to build 30 homes annually.
On behalf of Habitat for Humanity, we would like to extend a large Thank You to UDI for their generous ongoing support.
Habitat for Humanity Calgary - Who we are and what we do.
Habitat for Humanity Calgary has been building homes right here in Calgary for low-income families for nearly 20 years. Each project brings us closer to a milestone for our affiliate in Calgary. We anticipate that 2010 will mark the ground-breaking of our 100th home. To date, we have helped more than 100 families realize their dream of owning a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.
Our goal at Habitat for Humanity Calgary is to help low-income families break the cycle of poverty for their children. We do this by providing families in need with the life-changing opportunity to become homeowners.
Habitat for Humanity is an international agency, building homes for low-income families in over 100 countries. Here in Calgary, we are governed locally; our families, donors and volunteers are all Calgary community members.
We are well known for building with volunteers and in Calgary we have over 4,000 people who contribute their time, mostly in the area of construction. Our construction volunteers range from people who are using a hammer for the first time to construction industry professionals.
What many people don't know is that the families Habitat chooses aren't getting a free house. They are partners in building their own homes. They contribute hundreds of hours of volunteer labor to build their homes and then purchase them through no-interest, long-term mortgages. The requirements are simple; they must have children (we consider ourselves a children's charity), be employed with a history of employment, and be earning below the Canada Low-Income Level; for a family of four that's about $40,000 annually.
Our mortgage system is an important part of our business model. We pay the costs of land and construction through donations, then we "recycle" the mortgage payments to build additional homes.
Calgary Habitat for Humanity Quick Facts:
Doug Clark presenting Sandi Ferchau with the UDI Golf Tournament Cheque
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- Volunteers have built close to 100 homes, housing over 242 children and 125 adults.
- Provides a hand up, not a hand-out
- Habitat Calgary administrative costs are covered by proceeds from the Habitat Stores so 100% of all donations go directly to building.
- Recipient families are working but earning below the Canada Low Income Level and have children that will benefit from home ownership.
- Families must contribute sweat equity towards the construction of their home.
- Families purchase their homes with no-interest, no-down payment mortgages.
- Revenue from the interest-free, long-term mortgage payments are used to fund the building of more houses.
- Donors include individuals, corporations, service groups, churches and others.
- Supported by more than 4,000 volunteers.
For more information please visit the Calgary Habitat for Humanity website
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