Habitat puts grant money to good use

The affordable housing project called Aurora Place is right on schedule for completion this summer, thanks to the support of the community as well as the St. Albert Community Foundation.

Habitat for Humanity accepted a grant of $2,000 from the foundation during a granting ceremony held just before Christmas. Every little bit counts, explains Alfred Nikolai, the president and chief executive officer of Habitat’s local office.

“We’re very, very grateful to the St. Albert Community Foundation. That $2,000 will go directly into our project there. I don’t know if we’re going to buy a couple of windows with it or a couple of doors with it,” he said, adding that the dollars get a good stretch because of the generosity of numerous businesses that also offer deals or gifts on various construction materials.

“$2,000 isn’t just a little bit. It’s actually quite a lot. When we get $2,000 from here and $2,000 from there and another $2,000 from there, it becomes substantial.”

Aurora Place is the name of the new project on Arlington Drive. Formerly a vacant field owned by the St. Albert Public School district, it became Habitat’s first multi-unit project in the city.

Since the beginning, it had been slated for completion in stages. The first eight families moved in mid-November, signaling at the same time Habitat’s 200th key ceremony in the Edmonton area. Within the following month, 12 more families moved in, leaving 10 units still to be done and occupied.

“We’re right on track, in spite of the terrible weather that we had to start with. We were so far behind, I didn’t know what we were going to do. We couldn’t get the bulldozers on there to start. We were literally five months behind at one point.”

With everyone pulling together, he elaborated, work picked up steam in order to meet the original timeline. Now, it all looks set to stay on track.

“Always when you put a plan in place in construction, more times than not, it doesn’t happen exactly the way you say it will. When we were able to put all 20 families in before Christmas, there was a huge sigh of relief on our side but a huge gasp of pride as well.”

“Next summer, we’re going to have all 30 families living in there. It’s going to be landscaped and the kids are going to be playing in the park behind the property.”

In order to keep the steam chugging along, Nikolai says that complacency must be avoided. More financial help is still required but is tougher to come by over time.

“It has been a struggle. The longer you’re in the process, the harder it is to raise the money. We are still very much in need of some money. At the beginning, it’s much easier than at the end.”

Volunteers are still needed to put in time and sweat into each build as well. Don’t be dissuaded because it’s still winter, he continued. People can choose to work indoors or outdoors, now that the roofs are on the remaining units.