Celebrating LSTAR’s Pillar award, from left: Louise Stevens, City of London; Jack Lane, president, LSTAR; Judy Binder from CMHC; and Jeff Duncan from Habitat for Humanity.

The London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors recently announced that the Home at Last Affordable Home Ownership Partnership spearheaded by the association in 2005 has received a Pillar Community Collaboration Award, which was presented at the London Convention Centre before a sold-out crowd of 500 guests. The Pillar Non-Profit Network supports non-profit organizations in fulfilling their missions in the community, providing leadership, advocacy and support to the non-profit sector through the promotion of volunteerism, professional development and networking opportunities, and information sharing.

“Home At Last is a public-private collaboration that helps low-income families to own their own homes,” says LSTAR president Jack Lane. “It functions much like Habitat for Humanity – one of our Home at Last Partners – the difference being that, instead of building a new home, we renovate an existing one.”

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) is the other Home at Last Partner. “CMHC’s RRAP funding and the expertise provided by Judy Binder, CMHC’s district manager for Southwestern Ontario, have proved invaluable to the partnership over the years,” says Lane.

Home at Last recently handed over the keys to its third renovation to the family of Romeo Hernandez Gonzalez and Rosalba Lopez.