Two lucky Red Deer families will have a new home to call their own later this year, thanks to the efforts of Habitat for Humanity Red Deer.

Located in the SE neighbourhood of Aspen Ridge, the duplexes will be ready for two families to move in this fall.

Karen Vavrek is the CEO for Habitat Red Deer, and she talks about the two families selected for these houses that went through their extensive selection process last fall.

“We have Jonathan and Archana Brown and their two children, Trinity and Nathan, and Jessica Rodriguez and her son August are going to be the other homeowners who are moving in, and they are ecstatic to be part of this and they can’t wait to get started on the build of their new homes.”

Both Jonathan and Archana Brown are hard workers who own their own cleaning business while Jonathan attending university full-time.

This made it difficult for them to raise enough money to buy their own home, and that’s where Habitat for Humanity Red Deer stepped in.

Jonathan says they literally “gave us the one dream we didn’t think we could do.”

Rodriguez, originally from Chile, says it's a major upgrade from their current one bedroom apartment, where she shares a bed with her two-year-old son.

“There’s drug dealings, there’s smells of marijuana, we can see the people there in the hallway, really creepy people, and for me it’s really scary, and for my son, it’s not safe at all.”

Currently there are about 130 families on the wait list, with each one having to go through the same screening process as the these two families to ensure they fit the criteria.

This will be Habitat’s 34th and 35th home built in Central Alberta, and the 23rd and 24th home built in Red Deer.

For more information, you can visit habitatredeer.ca.