Hi, we are the Leno Family!
Matt, Heidi, Abbi, and Sam.
We will celebrate our 14 the anniversary in the fall. During these 14 years we have had our ups and downs. We have always dreamed of owning a house, but life kept on throwing curveballs at us.
Since we have been married, Heidi has a very difficult time in spells where she has a difficulty going up and down the stairs due to various forms of arthritis that is affected by the cold damp, and hot humid weather throughout the year. We have found that where we currently live if Heidi had to go into a wheelchair, it would not be accessible for her to use as it was too tight in the doorways and could not even fit a stair lift. As for Sam, at a young age he was diagnosed with mild Autism and absent seizures due to Epilepsy. In our current living arrangement, he has no place to escape if he needed some form of sensory output to help him manage his days as the basement is not warm enough in the winter to do things like this and not wired to plug things in if needed. His bedroom is not large enough to do this in his room, so we have to all work together to make this current rental work for all our needs.
Currently, our townhouse’s windows, and front and back doors are very drafty and can get very cold, especially in the bedrooms throughout the winter months. The furnace is on constantly with a tower heater fan circulating the heat into the bedrooms. In the summer, it can get very humid and hot, so we have 2 air conditioners on full which barely put a dent into making it easy to live. On Heidi’s bad days it makes it difficult to move around as our only bathroom is upstairs and nothing is on one level she sometimes needs to stay in our bedroom and have the kids come to help assist her with daily life activities, getting meals, and doing homeschooling on our bed. We have bought different assistive devices to help her have some independence, but when I work nights, it makes it very hard to help and do basic things in life like laundry, cooking, etc. while living in a neighbourhood that deals with high crime rates, is something I did not want my kids and family to be brought up in.
Fast forward to the end of 2019 we thought we can start the path to homeownership, then COVID happened, and we found ourselves traveling a health journey with our son Sam, so yet again we put that dream aside. A dream we thought we could pick up again, but house prices went up, out of our reach as a one income family. We couldn't move to a smaller town with lower prices because we needed to stay close to all the doctors our son has to go to. Barrie needed to be our home. So, with sadness we said goodbye to the homeownership dream as it continues to skyrocket with a rental that will never have a ceiling and will be financially strapping us the longer we stay.
Or so we thought. A friend of ours suggested that we apply to Habitat. We thought why not and gave it a shot. This location is ideal as the plaza across the street has everything we could need and more. It has a grocery store and has a variety of stores that we use daily and a library location we can use and not have to take the bus when I am working. Down the street has the Peggy Hill Community centre where our kids have enjoyed swimming lessons and other activities.
It will be a place that our children can grow up in, be comfortable in the changing of the seasons, Heidi to be more mobile on her bad days, a home where we can grow old in, holidays to be celebrated in with our immediate and extended families while memories to be made in. Feeling so blessed to be able to be homeowners because of Habitat.