At Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga, we’re all about innovation. Our team of staff, volunteers and community members is constantly thinking outside the box about how we can better meet the needs of people in our area. We know that the affordable housing crisis is a pervasive problem, so we are committed to finding innovative solutions. Here is more information about some of the programs we’re currently working on, and how you can get involved to help us create a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to call home.
1. Free used furniture pickup program
Our ReStores, social enterprises where you can buy home improvement items for 30 to 70 per cent of their initial value, accept donations of furniture, appliances, clothing and more (check out this link for a full list of accepted items). We’ve always offered the option for you to drop off your donation of used furniture at one of our ReStores so that our team can bring it into the warehouse, price it and get it out on the floor. But we know that for a lot of people in our community, dropping off furniture isn’t always the most convenient option.
That’s why we’re excited about our free furniture pickup program. When you sign up for a pickup through the form on our website, our team will come to your house or place of business at a scheduled time to pick up your donated couch, table, chair, desk or other furniture items. You’ll receive a charitable tax receipt for donations valued at $100 or more.
When you donate used furniture with free pickup, you’re not only decluttering your home for your downsize, move, renovation or spring cleaning. You’re also making a direct impact on our efforts to build affordable houses for local families. When items are purchased from our ReStores, the funds help cover our organization’s administrative costs and cover our home building costs.
That means that 100 per cent of monetary donations to Habitat go into our construction projects. With 56 per cent of building costs occurring before we put a shovel in the ground, it’s crucial that we are able to cover these upfront costs. Your contribution can be as simple as choosing to donate your used furniture — and we’re happy that we can offer a free home pickup option to make this an easier process for you.
2. Free kitchen removal program
Our ReStores also sell kitchen cabinets, countertops, appliances, vanities and more. Our team can pick up your already disassembled cabinets, and now we can also remove your unwanted cabinetry. Like Habitat’s furniture pickup service, our kitchen salvage program is free and you will receive a charitable tax receipt for the value of your donation. When you donate your kitchen to Habitat, you not only save on removal costs — you also make a positive impact on a local nonprofit’s mission to bring affordable housing to your community.
Habitat’s free kitchen deconstruction program is just one more way that we are trying to make the donation process even easier. When we are able to gather more donations for our ReStores, we have more products to offer to the public. That, in turn, leads to more items being purchased, and therefore more funds supporting our home building efforts. You can learn more about our free kitchen removal and donation program by visiting our website.
3. Coming soon: Habitat Handyman
At Habitat, we are committed to serving all families in our community. We’re so excited to announce our upcoming Habitat Handyman program. We will be offering home improvement and repair services such as general carpentry, cabinet removal and installation, kitchen and bathroom repair and renovation, drywall inspection and repairs, interior and exterior painting and more.
With this program, we want to enhance the quality of living for people in our community and enable people, especially seniors, to be able to live in their homes for a longer period of time. As such, some services will include things like adding accessibility retrofits and aging in place retrofits.
Handyman will work to increase the stock of affordable housing in the Halton and Mississauga areas. We will therefore help our community by increasing the value of homeowner’s equity, enable them to save funds and increase their personal stability at home.We will have an online application coming soon, so stay tuned to our website for the launch of Handyman!
4. ReVive Centre
Have you heard of our ReVive Centre in Mississauga? It’s our exclusive new upcycling centre, which features a workshop, DIY space and a Kids Build room. The ReVive Centre helps us transform products for our ReStores. Corporate teams and volunteers spend half or full days building, painting and breathing new life into products. These products then go to one of our ReStore locations, with a special tag indicating that they were made in ReVive. Items which otherwise might not catch someone’s eye are now turned into a unique piece.
ReVive is also a green initiative. We are able to accept more donations from our community and divert waste from landfills through reusing products. In this way, we’re working to help the environment by keeping usable items out of landfills at the same time as we are raising funds to help us build more homes for local families. You can learn more about ReVive by visiting our website.
5. Unique team building experiences
As a nonprofit, we are grateful for support from our donors so that we can continue building homes in our community. One way that we partner with community organizations is through our corporate team building programs — one of the most fun ways to donate to Habitat! We offer some of the most unique team building experiences in the GTA. Your corporate team can come out to a construction site to build for a day, spend a day in our ReVive Centre or in a ReStore.
Our team is also always on the lookout for new ways to bring team building experiences to our corporate partner. Last year, we held our first Playhouse Build-a-Thon with CUMIS Insurance. Teams of employees each had one day to construct a wooden playhouse and decorate it in a specific theme. At the end of three days, a team of judges evaluated the playhouses and picked a winner. The combination of competition and creativity made our playhouse challenge a huge success, and we were happy to be back with CUMIS this year to hold another one.
Both years, we sold the finished playhouses in our ReStore locations where they were a hit with the community. This allowed us to raise additional funds for our home building efforts, while having a great time in the process.
These are just a few of the innovative ways that we’re serving our communities. Stay up to date on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to see more!