First, Fiona slept in a shelter. Then, she slept in her laundry room.

After leaving a difficult relationship, the single mom of two daughters had only four bags of belongings to her name. Fiona moved into a family shelter with her children, working tirelessly until she could afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment.

The apartment flooded every time it rained. Her youngest daughter’s asthma flared up from the mold. Fiona didn’t know where to turn for help.

When Fiona heard an ad for Habitat for Humanity Canada on the radio, it felt like the answer she’d been waiting for. She drove her daughters to the family’s build site last Christmas Eve to see where they’d soon be fortunate enough to live.

After putting in her required 500 Habitat volunteer hours, Fiona is grateful that she and her daughters will be able to celebrate the holiday season in their home for many years to come. Learn all about how Fiona, with the help of Habitat for Humanity, was finally able to fulfill her dream to afford a safe and stable home for her family.

Help Build the Beyond for families this holiday season!

Please join us at Habitat for Humanity as we are building the beyond: a stronger future for families, communities, and our country through affordable housing. To do this, we partner with families in urgent housing need and provide them with an affordable mortgage geared to their income.

As the largest provider of affordable homeownership in Canada, Habitat for Humanity, our donors and partners, volunteers and Habitat families, we are working together to build the beyond to help even more families break down the barriers to a better life through the power of affordable housing.

You can help families like Fiona’s who are in need of a fresh start. Fiona’s story is what our Build the Beyond vision is rooted in — helping families break free from the barriers that are holding them back so they can realize their potential and carry their strength forward into their communities for generations to come.

There is no greater, more life-changing gift than the transformative power of safe and decent housing. And this holiday season, there has never been a more important time to help.

At Habitat, we partner with families living with low-income. These families are often caught in punishing cycles of unpredictable rent increases, overcrowded conditions, or lack of access to affordable financing. They may be dealing with poorly maintained homes in need of major repair, or inaccessible housing for people living with disabilities. These families live with a constant burden of uncertainty, stress and fear.

We do this work because we know that each and every single Habitat home changes lives: Not only for the families who help to build their own homes and pay an affordable mortgage, but all those in the community who offer them a hand up through donations, volunteering and support.

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