Repair pilot funding doubles

Funding has been doubled for the Kahnawake Home Repairs Program, a pilot project that will see renovations made to the homes of community members in need.

“I’m very pleased that we’re able to be meeting new people and building new relationships for the long-term,” said Sophie Dalbec, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Quebec one of the collaborators on the program.

“For Habitat for Humanity Quebec, it’s important for us to have a continued impact in helping families from all over. I’ve really appreciated learning more about Kanien’kehá:ka culture, Kahnawake is literally our neighbour, so it’s the right thing to do.”

Last September, Habitat for Humanity Quebec partnered with PlanIt Consulting to launch the pilot program, with the goal of completing three to five housing repair projects in the community. The project operated with a $45,000 contribution from Rio Tinto, a mining company that sources material for construction and other industries.

Now, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) has signed onto the program as a collaborator, contributing an additional $45,000 to the project to bring the total funding to $90,000.

“The second I read about it, I thought, ‘This is an awesome initiative,’” said MCK chief Ryan Montour, the lead on housing. “It was a no-brainer for us to contribute financially.”

At this stage, MCK’s involvement in the project will mostly be focused on the financial contribution, with the housing unit of the organization focused on other housing development projects, including the construction of entirely new homes for community members.

“We wanted to do a collaboration that was realistic and achievable, and the idea was to grow more partners, whether it be volunteer labour or donated materials or discounts on materials, we wanted to do something good with the small resources we had,” said Dalbec.

At this stage, MCK’s involvement in the project will mostly be focused on the financial contribution, with the housing unit of the organization focused on other housing development projects, including the construction of entirely new homes for community members.

Long-term, Montour said the organization would like to support initiatives like these further and build connections with contractors and volunteers who may work on the project.

“We’re definitely going to be looking forward to collaborating more in the future,” he said.

Around a dozen projects are slated to be completed by the end of 2026, including a roof renovation that was completed in November and upcoming bathroom renovations for residents with additional mobility needs.

The roof renovation saw four students from the First Nations Regional Adult Education Center (FNRAEC) carpentry program join the project, and remaining renovations will be assisted by volunteers recruited through PlanIt’s Volunteer Kahnawake initiative.

Local and non-local workers will help complete the scheduled renovations, with material and labour donations also coming from organizations like Home Depot St. Constant and 207 Hardware.

“When this project started, I didn’t think it’d evolve and snowball into what it is, but it’s growing more to my liking every day, and to me, the more people that can become involved and be a part of this and feel ownership of it, the more impact it will have,” said Charleen Schurman, the founder of PlanIt.

“We always want to get involved in community projects that are going to help our neighbours and help the community be better, and this was one of them that’s just such a good fit.”

MCK’s executive operations officer Alan John Rice said that initiatives like this can complement MCK’s own self-driven projects to help address Kahnawake’s housing crisis in the long-term.

“We’re always looking for partners in housing,” Rice said. “There’s a lot of people that don’t know the programs we have, and I think this could be really beneficial for them. We see a lot of requests from elders to retrofit houses, and I think those are things that this program can really help with.”

He said that the benefits are twofold: more community members can benefit from much-needed housing repairs, and more tradespeople can work on renovation projects.

“If we can get community members to have the skills to come in and help with this, that would be ideal,” he said. “It’s helping your own community.”

The current round of renovations is closed for applications, but Dalbec said that she’s already working on more funding applications to potentially continue the initiative in future. Should more funding come, applications could open again next summer.

“Helping Indigenous communities is part of Habitat for Humanity’s values from the start,” Dalbec said. “We want to be able to do something good for the community.”

[email protected]