HABITAT for Humanity’s search for a second home owner in Junee is over, with resident Emily Bollingmore set to move into the second house in Percy Street.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Bollingmore and her 11-month-old daughter Chloe live in a rental property in Junee and will move in once the second house has left the Junee Correctional Centre (JCC) and has been completed.
Ms Bollingmore has faced adversity in life beginning with her parents divorcing when while still in school and family difficulties making it difficult to complete her education.
Despite the hardship, she completed her school certificate in 2007 and moved to her great-grandmother’s house. She then took on a traineeship in child care.
However, disaster struck in 2009 when Ms Bollingmore’s great-grandmother died.
Moving to the central coast with her partner Phil, Ms Bollingmore took on three jobs to keep paying the bills before falling pregnant and returning to Junee in 2011 to be closer to her mother.
“Since Chloe’s birth I have been struggling to pay all my bills,” she said.
Ms Bollingmore noticed a flyer for HFH program and took the details to look at.
“Taking the details was one thing, calling was another,” she said.
“If my application was accepted, and I could move out of the cold rental we are currently living in and Chloe would be given a secure place to grow up, something I never had as a child,” Ms Bollingmore said.
While she thought there was no chance she would be accepted, she couldn’t believe it when received the call that she would be Junee’s second Habitat for Humanity home-owner.
HFH expects a $1000 deposit on the property and provides a loan – with no interest – to be paid back by the home-owner.
In addition to paying back the loan from HFH, families need to begin investing more than 500 hours of sweat-equity into their homes or for the charity.
Ms Bollingmore said she was quite eager to get started on helping out.
“It’s a new start for me,” she said.
JCC’s offender services manager Trevor Coles said there had been a push to complete the second house so it can reach lock-up and it’s estimated the second house could leave JCC in as little as four weeks.
Mr Coles said inmates were currently completing the first house’s plumbing and front verandah, with the final electrical work completed by Young TAFE students on Monday.
The first house is expected to be completed before the end of the year.