It’s taken five years but the Hamilton-Halton Construction Association (HHCA) Legacy Build project with Habitat Hamilton is complete and the new homeowners will be moving in just in time for the holidays.
The keys were handed over in a ceremony at the site Nov. 24.
“The two families were just over the moon, so grateful, so excited and so inspired,” said Sue Ramsay, general manager of the HHCA.
After a few finishing touches, the new homeowners moved in Dec. 1.
“It’s been a real labour of love,” Ramsay said. “Everybody is committed to seeing it done and getting these families in their homes in time to have the kind of family Christmas that hasn’t been available to them previously.”
In celebration of its centennial in 2020, HHCA made a commitment to raise $200,000 and build a home with Habitat Hamilton.
“It was intimidating in the beginning,” Ramsay admitted. “We’ve never tried to raise that kind of money before. It was a really ambitious idea. But ambitious doesn’t mean impossible. There are lots of things I would change about the experience, like COVID…but the members rallied to support the idea of doing something for the community that has been supporting our industry for over 100 years.”
The idea came about while the HHCA’s Women in Construction group was discussing doing a build day in 2016.
“Our centennial was coming up in 2020, so we talked to Habitat, we talked to the HHCA board, and the commitment was to raise $200,000 cash, in kind donations and the board was absolutely supportive with the caveat that the Women in Construction had to lead the charge.”
Ground was broken in September 2019 to build the semi-detached two-unit dwelling located at 134 Catharine St. N. in downtown Hamilton. The building permits for the project came through on the same day the City of Hamilton closed its offices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We got our permits at 4 p.m. in the afternoon. It really felt like a miracle and it allowed us to carry on through the pandemic. There were lots of delays obviously but that was a gift,” recalled Ramsay.
The property was donated by the Diocese of Hamilton and there was some remediation required before construction could begin. While Habitat homes don’t usually have basements because it adds cost, these ones do.
“Remediation, which was fairly significant, started in September,” Ramsay said. “The property had a building on it at some point in the past and there had been a fire.”
Over the years, various successful fundraisers were held to raise money for the cause.
“Our original plan was the homes would be finished by September or October of 2020,” said Ramsay. “That obviously didn’t happen. It was a combination of things but mostly access to the jobsite. During COVID they really limited how many people could be in a space.”
Additionally, there were limits on the amount of corporate and volunteer Build Days.
“We did successfully run some mini Build Days in the fall of 2020,” Ramsay said. “Usually a Build Day would be about 15 people on one day and what we did was three days with five volunteers each day.”
The families also had to put in a certain number of volunteer hours to build their homes.
Ramsay had the pleasure of meeting the families who will call the new houses home.
“Most of these people have been living in a situation where they are precariously housed or they are over-crowded. They don’t have a space of their own, they don’t necessarily have a lot of control, so to be in a space that they get to make the decisions and they don’t have to worry…it just opens up a lot of possibilities that weren’t there before,” she said.
Overall, the build was made possible thanks to the support of HHCA members and the community who donated money, time, materials, labour and resources.
“We were really touched that many of our member companies, even though they were going through their own challenges at the time, continued to support the project and show up,” Ramsay said.
Hanson Ready Mix, L.J. Barton Mechanical and Lancaster Group made significant contributions to the project. Other project team members include Alberici Constructors; Ancaster Rotary Club; Aon Canada Inc.; Budget Demolition; Burlington Paving; Fairway Electrical; Falcon Crane; GEN-PRO; Historia Building Restoration; John Kenyon; McMaster Innovation Park; Premier Corrosion Protection Services Inc.; Reimar Construction Corp.; Skeates Contracting Inc.; Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company; Walters Group; and Wm. Groves Limited.
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