HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SOCIETY OF GREATER VANCOUVER
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Mission Statement
Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver helps move modest-income families from uncertain rental situations into Habitat homes that they own and can afford—giving Partner Families a hand up towards their dreams of homeownership. Established in 1995, Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver helps families from Hope to Squamish. At Habitat for Humanity, we mobilize and rely upon the generosity of our community partners and volunteers to build our homes and staff our ReStore operations. What is ReStore? ReStore is Habitat’s social enterprise and a retail store that sells donated new and gently-used home decor and building supplies at 50 to 80% off retail prices. All revenue from our Greater Vancouver ReStore locations covers Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver’s operational costs and contributes to our Build Fund—a fund generated from Habitat partner family lease payments and donor dollars. The Build Fund is used to build more Habitat homes. This is unique to Habitat as our ability to cover our own operational expenses through our ReStore, means that all donor funds go directly to building homes.
About This Cause
Habitat for Humanity offers families a hand up, not a hand out. We partner with families who earn a working income between $35,000 and $86,000 a year, helping them to build equity to eventually become a homeowner. Our goal is to empower hardworking modest-income families, so they no longer live in substandard rental conditions. This would mean that their current shelter is overcrowded, overpriced (over 30% of their income goes to rent), unsafe area or unhealthy with mold and heat issues. Many of our family applicants are living in untenable situations in a 1-bedroom unit with multiple children and paying 50-70% of their income on shelter alone. Children rarely have their own room and parents sleep on couches. Many require housing subsidies to pay the rent and meet life’s basic needs. With COVID and the need to shelter in place, their housing needs have become greater than ever as mental health has become a significant concern. Through the Habitat model our Partner Families have their lives transformed and thrive. We cap their monthly payments at 30% of their family income, immediately freeing up income for necessities and allowing families to make a choice for their families. Children can partake in extra-curricular activities, parents go back to school, savings for children's education and retirement are now options. This hand up gives hardworking Greater Vancouver families homes that they can afford. It enables them to add to savings and helps them break free from the cycle of living paycheque-to-paycheque. Habitat for Humanity is able to achieve results like no other non-profit or private mortgage lender because we bring together community, business and volunteer support to build safe, decent and affordable homes. The Habitat for Humanity model has been a success here in British Columbia, across Canada and internationally. We provide Partner Families with extensive homeowner training (money management, credit and financial planning, home maintenance), as well as ongoing support services. By investing 500 hours of sweat equity (volunteer time) in building their own home (or volunteering on our builds, at our events or at our ReStores), Partner Families are committed to Habitat for Humanity—helping ensure a successful transformation in their lives. Each monthly payment from current Habitat Partner Families is deposited in the Build Fund which is leveraged to build additional homes for more Partner Families—while simultaneously building a savings fund for Partner Families for future use in the traditional mortgage market. When a family starts to become self-reliant and is ready to move on, a portion of their equity built up through their monthly payments is returned to them in cash, while their home remains within the Habitat for Humanity inventory for another family to benefit. Over the past two decades, Habitat for Humanity Greater Vancouver has played an important role in addressing the demand for affordable housing in the second most expensive housing market on the planet, but still more needs to be done. We recently completed 19 homes in MIssion which over their lifetime will help over 150 families and 380 children. Forty-two additional homes are in the predevelopment stage. Without the generous and ongoing support of our surrounding community, we would be unable to help these families, many of them frontline workers. Thank you for considering support of our important work. Should you wish to join us on a build site to volunteer as well, our Habitat Build Day is an excellent opportunity for you to experience the tangible impact that you are making.