Kaikohe family to get Habitat home
One Kaikohe family is set to get a helping hand towards the purchase of their first home.
Habitat for Humanity are looking for their next partner family for their assisted home ownership programme.
The scheme will eventually allow the successful applicant to be the owners of their own fourbedroom home in Sydney St, Kaikohe.
Operations Manager Diane Coleman says the programme is a traditional rent to own scheme for people who have lived in the area for at least a couple of years.
‘‘This sort of scheme can cause a generational change, if a child’s parents own their own home, the kids are 70 per cent more likely to own their own home.’’
She says a scheme like this can be a godsend for people who are doing their best but just can’t quite get ahead in terms of home ownership.
‘‘Firstly there has to be a housing need and the second thing is they need to be employed.
‘‘Then they need to be willing to partner with us and work closely together for a ten year period.’’
Events and Marketing Manager Laura Welsby says the programme is in line with the charity’s ‘‘hand up not a hand out’’ approach.
‘‘Rent goes into the pot so they are paying off the house, normally after five years they will then enter into a long-term sales agreement.
‘‘When they have enough equity they can apply for a mortgage so they can buy the house from Habitat.
‘‘We use the term sweat equity to refer to the hours of labour our partner families volunteer to help build their home. This experience is empowering and gives our partner family’s a sense of pride and joy as they work together with Habitat to build their future.’’
The money from the house purchase gets put into a revolving fund for the housing charity to use for future land purchases.
Welsby encourages anyone to come along and find out more about the programme.
The Home Ownership Meeting will be held on September 16 at 5.30pm at the Kaikohe Baptist Church which will explain how the programme works and how families can apply.
The Kaikohe home will be the 44th in Northland to be built for the assisted home ownership programme and the first for Kaikohe.