Habitat for Humanity Grey Bruce has entered a partnership to receive materials for seven new homes in Saugeen First Nation.
The homes coming to the Southampton area will be built with siding material provided by Westlake Royal Building Products, a company based out of the United States which produces exterior and interior building products.
The partnership was announced earlier this month and will assist in building the homes, which will house seven member families of Saugeen First Nation.
“This addition of new energy-efficient housing in Saugeen First Nation means members who were forced to leave the area in search of housing option can return to their community raise their children,” says Westlake Royal.
Each home will be a single-dwelling, and will have either three or four bedrooms.
The pre-selected families already had the chance to customize each home with their preferred colour and finishes. The families moving in will be renting the homes, until after 20 years, when Habitat for Humanity Grey Bruce Executive Director Greg Fryer says they will be given the chance to own the home.
Fryer says Westlake Royal is donating about 140 squares of vinyl siding for the homes still under construction.
Fryer says, “every donation, big or small, cash or gift in kind, like this is a gift in kind donation helps us especially with the rising costs that we are facing with building materials and other costs related to building homes including tools and fuel for our trucks and everything else. All these costs are going up and any donation, large or small, really helps and this is a big donation from Westlake that’s really helping us with our costs so we can build these homes for families at Saugeen First Nation.”
Saugeen First Nation Coun. Melissa Snowdon adds they are grateful for the donation that will go towards the new homes.
“The continued support from Habitat and sponsors like Westlake Royal are making a real impact towards addressing our housing shortage needs,” says Snowdon.
Fryer adds this partnership with the Grey Bruce branch is part of a larger initiative for Westlake Royal to provide materials for 10 homes a year to Habitat for Humanity Canada. Fryer adds he foresees more materials coming to Grey Bruce to build more homes for Saugeen First Nation.
“The partnership is really strong and they are really excited about the work we are doing with Saugeen and also next year with Chippewas Nawash, they are asking us to build a couple more homes there, hopefully we can use Westlake Royal building products siding on those homes as well as the ones at Saugeen,” says Fryer.
The new homes coming to Saugeen First Nation are expected to be completed in December and given to each family before the start of the holiday season.
