Habitat for Humanity Orillia/Lake Country

The Habitat Home Program

Habitat for Humanity Orillia/Lake Country partners with businesses, organizations, church groups, and individuals to build simple affordable houses for qualifying families in need of decent housing.

Each home is kept affordable through:

• Generous donations of cash, building materials, land and other gifts-in-kind,
• Volunteer labour of many dedicated individuals, and skilled tradesmen,
• Build organizing committees, & Board members working alongside partner families to build houses.

The homes are sold to selected partner families at no profit and through long-term, interest-free mortgages. HFHOLC holds the mortgages and the monthly mortgage payments made by families go into a revolving Fund for Humanity used to build more homes.

Who Qualifies for a Habitat Home?

The Habitat home program is open to anyone living in Orillia/Lake Country who is in need of decent housing and who meets the following conditions. The volunteer Family Selection Committee will evaluate each application for housing based on these conditions and pay careful attention to the applicant’s real need.

• You must currently live in Orillia/Lake Country.
• You must not have a mortgage or own property.
• You must be able to demonstrate your need for a Habitat home. Your living conditions must be unsafe, unhealthy, overcrowded or your rent must be extremely high for your family’s income.
• Your family’s combined gross yearly income must be under the amounts posted on the Statistic Canada LICO list according to how many in the family unit. Income from employment, pensions and all other sources (except Social Assistance and Employment Insurance) are considered.
• You must be able to pay approximately 30% of your family’s gross monthly income toward a no–interest mortgage and property taxes and house insurance.
• You must provide detailed financial information and submit your latest tax return(s) and Notice(s) of Assessment.
• You must provide three letters of reference.
• You must be willing to volunteer 500 hours of “sweat equity” plus pay a $500.00 down payment, towards the construction of your house, (the requirements are slightly different for single parent households) Other projects towards sweat equity could be for Habitat or community projects. towards the construction of your house and/or other Habitat projects.
• You must fully complete an application form.
• You will be expected to partner with Habitat by promoting and supporting Habitat for Humanity and its mission.

(NOTE: The information above is subject to change so contact us for confirmation.) 

Once selected, a partner family will also agree to attend a series of orientation meetings to prepare for the responsibility of home ownership. These will include classes on mortgages, financial planning, home maintenance, legal and other matters.

How does the Selection Process work?

First, you will come to a Habitat for Humanity Information Night. In this presentation Habitat will review the eligibility criteria and the application process. You will be able to ask questions and if you are interested in applying for a Habitat for Humanity home, you will be given an application form.

All fully completed applications submitted by the application deadline will be reviewed by the volunteer Family Selection committee. Applicants that do not qualify will be notified by mail.

Applicants that appear to qualify will be contacted by the Family Selection Committee to set up two interviews in the applicant’s home by two different teams. After interviews are completed, applications will be prioritized on the basis of relative need and two applicants will be short-listed for each available home. Applicants not short-listed will be notified by mail.

The Family Selection Committee will present factual, non-identifying information to the HFHOLC Board of Directors for each short-listed family. The directors will vote by secret ballot to select one family for each available home.

Selected families will be notified by phone and non-selected families will be notified by mail.

To Apply for a Home in Orillia/Lake Country

Please download the Application Package, read the cover sheet and the application very carefully then if, at this time, you qualify please fill out the application in full using the checklist to ensure that you have completed all the supporting documentation.  If at this time your family does not qualify, please feel free to look us up again in a year or so as our qualifications do change from time to time and your situation may also change.  Completed applications can be mailed to:

Please contact Eric Blough at (705) 689-1033 with any questions.