who we are and what we do
Habitat Manitoba
Founded in 1987, Habitat Manitoba is a not for profit housing organization that believes everyone deserves a safe and decent place to live. Habitat for Humanity has a decades-long legacy of improving access to quality affordable homes, locally and worldwide. Thanks to our generous corporate and individual donors, thousands of volunteers, and customers at our three Habitat ReStores, we continue to build homes, communities and hope in Manitoba. Habitat Manitoba have helped build homes for over 500 families and more than 1,400 children across the province and in Kenora, Ontario. Every safe, affordable home sparks wider change, leading to better health, education and well-being, more economic growth and less poverty. Peace of mind and the ability to focus on what matters most – it all starts with a home.
Through our unique affordable homeownership program, we offer families a hand up not a hand out by, empowering them to build strength, stability, and self-reliance:
- Families purchase a home from Habitat for Humanity Manitoba with no down payment required.
- Since families wouldn’t qualify for a conventional mortgage, we provide a Habitat Manitoba mortgage that removes the barriers to homeownership. We offer a fixed, 15-year renewable mortgage with zero interest so that families can maximize the equity they build while raising their children.
- Mortgage payments are calculated annually, so that families pay 27% of household income on shelter costs.
- As part of their partnership with Habitat Manitoba, families contribute 500 labour hours help build their home, other Habitat homes, or by working in the Habitat ReStore.
- Every family attends financial education workshops to prepare themselves for first-time homeownership.
- As soon as a family starts to pay off their mortgage, Habitat Manitoba uses those dollars to work on helping build the next home for the another family.
- As families pay off their mortgages, donor and sponsor dollars are reinvested and used by Habitat Manitoba to build more homes for working, lower income families in our community.
- We keep our build costs low through volunteer labour and, as much as possible, donated or reduced-cost building materials and services.
Vacant and abandoned houses weaken Winnipeg neighborhoods, attracting crime and lowering community pride. Habitat for Humanity Manitoba turns these problem properties into opportunities. Through our Renovation Program, we acquire abandoned or tax-sale homes and transform them into safe, energy-efficient houses for families in need of affordable homeownership.
Renovation allows us to retrofit more homes for less money, which means more affordable mortgages for Habitat homeowners. It also takes less time than building new, helping families move through the housing continuum more quickly and into the stability of homeownership.
Instead of demolishing, we restore existing housing stock, reduce environmental impact, and revitalize communities. Families contribute 500 volunteer hours and purchase their renovated home through Habitat’s affordable mortgage model, moving from instability into strength and independence.
With support from partners like Manitoba Housing, the City of Winnipeg, and Efficiency Manitoba, this program creates lasting change by restoring dignity to neighborhoods and providing families with stable, sustainable homes.
our history
The idea that became Habitat for Humanity first started at Koinonia Farm, a community farm outside of Americus, Georgia, founded by farmer and biblical scholar Clarence Jordan.
On the farm, Jordan and Habitat’s eventual founders, Millard and Linda Fuller, developed the concept of “partnership housing.” It would involve those in need of adequate shelter working side-by-side with volunteers to build decent, affordable houses at no profit. The new homeowners’ house payments would be combined with no-interest loans provided by supporters to create a revolving fund, which would then be used to build more homes.
Beau and Emma were the owners of the first home built by Koinonia’s Partnership Housing Program. They and their five children moved into a concrete-block home with a modern kitchen, indoor bathroom and heating system, replacing the uninsulated shack with no plumbing where they previously lived.
In 1973, the Fullers decided to bring the concept to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. After three years of hard work to launch a successful house building program there, the Fullers then returned to the United States and called together a group of supporters to discuss the future of their dream: Habitat for Humanity International. Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity International has since grown to become a global nonprofit working in more than 70 countries, including Canada.
The Habitat movement first spread to Canada in 1985, when the country’s first Habitat home was built in Winkler, Manitoba. Just two years later, Winnipeg became the first local Habitat in Canada. Today, Habitat for Humanity Canada is a leading national nonprofit, with local Habitats working in every province and territory across the country. With the help of these local Habitats, volunteers, and Habitat homeowners, we provide a solid foundation for thousands of families to lead better, healthier lives in Canada and around the world.
Today, the vision has become a reality.