For Lacey Untereiner, learning she was going to own her own home thanks to Habitat for Humanity was overwhelming.
“How did I get this lucky that I got this opportunity?”
Lacey had been volunteering with the organization for a few years and was helping to frame a house in Spruce Grove, Alta. when the new mom began to wonder who would receive the keys.
“I started to look into what it takes to become a Habitat family and the criteria. I met all the criteria,” she said. “So I applied and here we are.”
Lacey said in an uncommon twist, she swung a hammer at her own build site.
“I worked on this particular site, it was a really interesting time. It was a lot of fun actually.”
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She got the keys to her house in December 2010 but more houses around her were still under construction. She cooked and baked for volunteers.
As a single mother, being a homeowner was always out of reach.
“Being on a limited income, it was tough to make ends meet,” Lacey explained.
Lacey grew up in a low-income family and moved around a lot.
“I didn’t want that for my daughter. I wanted her to have a home that she was going to have for as young as she could remember to when she finally leaves and it’ll always be home. Hopefully, when I retire, I can pass it down to her.”
Her only child, Leyla, was four years old when they moved into their duplex in Anderson Gardens, in northeast Edmonton.
“I just like it because it makes me feel at home. It makes me feel safe because all my stuff is here.”
When the family first moved in, they faced the same opposition many low-income housing projects do in Edmonton.
READ MORE: Alberta government partners with Habitat for Humanity, former US president on new project
“A neighbour was driving down the street and screamed out obscenities at us and told us to get out of the neighbourhood and that sort of thing,” Lacey said.
“I think there is that misconception about who is going to be owning these homes. I think people have a misconception that they’re given to us. They’re not. I have a mortgage. I have to pay this off. I paid fair market value for my home.”
To qualify for a Habitat home, families need to have good credit, not a lot of debt and a full-time job.
READ MORE: Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter kicks off Edmonton Habitat for Humanity project
In place of a financial down payment, they must volunteer 500 hours of their time building homes. In exchange, they get an interest free mortgage – “a hand-up, not a handout,” Lacey said.
That’s allowed her to start saving for retirement and her daughter’s education.
Lacey has just one piece of advice for others in need of a house: apply.
“It was kind of the seed that planted the tree that has become our life that has become so full and so blessed.”
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