On Tuesday September 6th, at 2:00 p.m., Habitat for Humanity Prince Edward-Hastings will be breaking ground on their first build project in almost two years. 639 Sidney Street will soon be home to a duplex that will soon be offered to two families in the community.
Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization, seeks to ease the strain of home ownership by requiring zero down payments and offering 0% interest mortgages, with payments geared to equal 25% of an applicant’s total family income. Hazzem Koudsi, Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity Prince Edward-Hastings explained “We know two homes doesn’t solve the entire problem our community is facing in regard to lack of affordable home ownership, but for the two families who will live here – it solves the entire problem”.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk, local Builder Andy Geertsma, and Board Chair Kathryn Brown have been invited to join Mr. Koudsi to join him at the ceremony on Tuesday.
Habitat acknowledges that it has been a team effort to get to this point in the project. Koudsi commented that “We need to acknowledge, the neighbours in the community that supported our rezoning request to make this duplex possible as well as Mayor Panciuk and City Council for providing the land to Habitat for Humanity Prince Edward-Hastings. And Geertsma Construction has been very supportive helping us develop and build this duplex project.
Habitat will be announcing the opening of the application period for 639 Sidney in the near future. “It’s an incredible time to be a part of Habitat Prince Edward-Hastings right now”, a smiling Koudsi said.