Homes for the Holiday

A Real Home

It is an amazing thing to introduce someone to a new house. Home is where we grow up, where we thrive, cry, laugh, and learn who we are. We’re conscious of that every time we build a new home, and with winter and the Christmas holiday coming up we’re very aware there are people who can’t afford a home, can’t afford a safe place to sleep, eat, and be themselves. So, in the spirit of the giving season, here’s a list of local charities that are dedicated toward helping people attain a space that they can feel comfortable and safe in – a real home.

McMan South has a host of local programs designed to help people move from dependence, whether that’s dependence on drugs or on charity, to independence, everything from finding a job to finding a home. And further, encouraging people to strive beyond independence to becoming an active part of the community that surrounds them. If you wish to donate, they take contributions online.

The YWCA offers both emergency and longer term housing for women and their children, keeping women fleeing terrible situations off the street. It also offers help to youth who are homeless or are at risk for becoming homeless under the Hestia Homes Program. They accept donations on their website.

Habitat for Humanity is a multi-national not for profit that works to put people in homes around the world and here at home. Details for volunteering are at the posted link.

The Salvation Army Furniture bank isn’t focused on ending homelessness, but on helping make homes of houses. A house, after all, is just the start of a home, and can be pretty bleak if furnished with nothing but broken cast offs and shadows. Details for donations are at the web address linked to above.

The Social Housing In Action (S.H.I.A.) through the Bringing Lethbridge Home initiative is a government funded program intended to end homelessness in the region over the next five years. The Bringing Home Lethbridge website has some great tips for helping to end homelessness.

From all of us here at Van Arbor Homes, we hope your home will be a place of warmth and family this Christmas Season, and that you’ll find yourself so full of the warmth of the festivities that it will flow over to those in need.

Happy Christmas.