We grew up in the Salvation Army, and Housing Foundation had partnered with them for the Glen Eden development. There were a couple of families who attended our church at the time, so we learned a bit about the Housing Foundation from them.
When we got married, we registered our interest in the Housing Foundation.
We wanted to live in Auckland, as that’s where most of our extended families are based. As a teacher and a youth worker, that looked less and less likely to be possible without significant financial support from family, which wasn’t tenable. We thought the potential to jointly own and get into a place of our own was a fascinating idea and one of the few pathways we could see to ownership with a young family at our stage of life.
The impact of moving into our new home has been incredible. The boys were nervous to move as we had been in a long-term rental and were moving a bit further away from their school and kindergarten, but it worked out incredibly. We have a backyard that is safe and secure; there’s space for friends and family to stay and we can host the extended family for meals and celebrations. The boys each have their own rooms and there’s space to grow. We all feel settled, which we haven’t really felt before. It’s also been incredible to live in the community near where we grew up and close to all our extended family, as well as our church and Melissa’s work.
Our new home has been amazing. We did move in just before the Auckland floods, which was a frightening experience. The home held up well, though, and if we can make it through that, it must be pretty solid! We love having a backyard and planting some veggies and bits and pieces out there. Having the freedom to make our house a home has been wonderful.
We found working with the Housing Foundation team to be great. Thinking back, it was stressful at the time, mainly wondering whether or not everything would work out.
What was particularly good about our journey into our new home was being able to follow through on one of my (Caleb’s) late father’s wishes for us, to be in a place of our own. Knowing that we’ll be here a long time and the boys can grow here gives us a massive sense of peace.
The journey had its ups and downs, but overall, being a part of a lovely community and being able to stay in our native West Auckland have been encouraging parts of the journey. Ultimately though, the best part is all that remains to come!
We found working with the Housing Foundation team to be great.