ST. PAUL – The St. Paul Affordable Community Housing Society (SPACH) is hoping to partner with Habitat For Humanity to develop affordable housing in St. Paul and recently requested the Town of St. Paul provide specific details to the location of the four lots committed by the Town for housing development.
Habitat for Humanity (H4H) is an international non-profit housing organization working to help families build affordable homes. The organization works in over 70 countries, including Canada.
A delegation from SPACH spoke to Town council on Aug. 14, stating the group hopes to partner with H4H to develop affordable housing in St. Paul, but requires physical addresses of the four lots previously committed by the Town.
Paul Bailey, president of the Society, told council that H4H changed its operational model, specifically that it will not build houses with volunteers anymore, as was done in the past. Bailey said that a cost study indicated houses built by “well-meaning volunteers” cost twice as much as having a building contractor build them due to error corrections.
H4H also usually has the community provide lots for housing projects, and families qualified for H4H’s housing project must provide 500 hours of community service. This will be expected of the community if H4H would invest in the Town for affordable housing.
Bailey said H4H is interested in meeting with the society, although nothing is yet confirmed. But they hope to sit down with H4H by the end of September. He reiterated, moving forward, this requires physical addresses of the four lots.
Bailey also added further information as to the funding model if a partnership were to happen. He said the mortgage would be a 50/50 split, with 50 per cent bank approved mortgage by the family, and the other 50 per cent carried by H4H at zero interest for 20 years without payments.
A family must qualify at the bank rate, have credit, income, job stability, as well as a $45,000 minimum family income to qualify for a mortgage. The family would only have to pay the mortgage based on 50 per cent of the value of the home, but they pay all of the taxes and insurance, said Bailey.
“They are the registered owners of the home and (H4H) will also register a first right of refusal to buy it back when the families are ready to graduate from the program. Habitat buys it back, refurbishes it, and sells it to another family,” said Bailey.
H4H gets its funding from donations and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as part of the contract, said Bailey, and H4H will also deal with municipal authorities in the long-term. “Our Society would become redundant,” he said.
“The Town would be the one monitoring the community service with SPACH qualifications, outlining our vision. Habitat would commit to developing affordable housing options on the lots. In effect, our society would be giving the lots back to the Town with a house or duplex developed with the condition that they are be used for affordable housing,” said Bailey.
Mayor Maureen Miller asked for clarification about how the buying back of houses by the H4H will take place.
Louise Severin, SPACH’s building expert, said when a family graduates from the program, H4H would buy back the home, refurbish it, and sell it back to another deserving family. “It’ll still be someone who qualifies that needs the assistance,” she said.
Coun. Ron Boisvert asked if there was a minimum size of the required lots. Severin said, “It’s more like a maximum size of the house... but they do townhouses, duplexes,” and noted they also build three-bedroom homes in the United States with a maximum size of 1,015 square feet.
“I’m not sure if Habitat has blueprints for us to choose from or if we come up with the plans, but we’ll know more once we have another sit-down meeting with them this fall,” said Severin.
The preference is to have individual lots in different locations throughout the community.
Boisvert also asked if there were any criteria for the location of the houses.
Severin said she doesn’t believe H4H has any rules about location of the houses, “But it’s important that it’s integrated within the overall community and not segregated.”
Severin also said the society, while "it may be overly optimistic... our goal is to get this going in the spring of 2024."
Miller said council will refer the matter back to administration to look at.
Pierre Lamoureux, the Society’s legal counsel, told Lakeland This Week in a follow-up interview that while nothing is set in stone with H4H yet, said, “We’re very happy to be in discussions with them.”
