Anta Mbaye is excited to finally have her very own home in Canada, but says she’s not nearly as excited as her three children are.
“Now they have their own bedrooms,” said Mbaye.
Her family is one of three who were selected as Habitat for Humanity partner families and will soon be able to purchase their very own homes thanks to a build in St. Boniface.
The build launched Wednesday with a sod-turning ceremony and includes a three-plex unit on an Enfield Crescent lot.
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Mbaye’s family has lived in St. Norbert for the last year in a two-bedroom apartment. She shares one of the bedrooms with her two daughters, while her teenage son sleeps in the other one.
Space won’t be an issue anymore.
“If you have your new house, that feels nice, you feel safe,” said Mbaye.
The family comes from Senegal and arrived in Winnipeg seven years ago. Prior to their St. Norbert move, they lived in a St. Boniface apartment for six of their seven years in the city and are happy to be back in a familiar place.
It is the first Habitat build in St. Boniface since 2012.
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Sandy Hopkins, CEO of Habitat Manitoba, says a new home for families can pay immediate dividends.
“When a Habitat family gets in the home, almost immediately the children do better in school, the families are healthier, there are fewer visits to the doctor and the hospital,” Hopkins said.
He says new families benefit the community as well, and said each family purchasing a Habitat home provides $175,000 to the community over a 25-year span.
Habitat hopes the homes will be completed by the end of 2018.