The Near West Side Initiative

The Near West Side Initiative represents a collaborative effort to restore one of Syracuse’s oldest neighborhoods to a neighborhood of choice for all residents. While the neighborhood offers many cultural and architectural assets, it suffers from one of the lowest homeownership rates in the country and a severely devalued property base.

Volunteers from EMA, United Way and SUNY ESF work with Home HeadQuarters’ staff clearing brush from a Marcellus Street house.

Home HeadQuarters plans to complement commercial development on the eastern border of the neighborhood by helping current homeowners maintain and improve their homes while creating opportunities for new families to the community.

Existing Near West Side homeowners are taking advantage of Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative mini-grants of up to $5,000 for exterior improvements to their homes, $2,500 in energy upgrades and a free energy audit through the Center of Excellence. Other Near West Side properties that Home HeadQuarters plans to rehabilitate will have the addition of green technologies and other innovative design improvements through the Center of Excellence, the Syracuse University School of Architecture and other partners.

As additional funding becomes available, Home HeadQuarters will work with neighborhood residents to acquire additional blighted properties and provide education and counseling to Near West Side families, who will one day become proud and successful homeowners.

Low-interest Energy & Home Improvement Loans Go Global!

Ok, not quite global, but Home HeadQuarters’ FlexFund Home Improvement Loans and NYSERDA Energy Loans and Grants are now available to homeowners throughout Central New York!

As more families face rising utility costs in aging homes, the need for flexible, low-interest, no equity required energy and home improvement financing keeps increasing—that’s why we are now offering our loans and grants to Central New York homeowners in Onondaga, Broome, Madison, Cayuga, Cortland and Oswego counties.

Home HeadQuarters, working with local lending partners, put together a loan pool specifically targeting families who have not yet built enough equity in their homes or fall just below bank underwriting standards to borrow from traditional lenders. There are no income eligibility requirements to participate in this program.

Learn more about Energy Improvement Loans at 2.99% (APR* 3.33%)--the lowest interest rate available in the area--Energy Grants of up to $5,000 for eligible homeowners and FlexFund Loans at 6.99% (APR* 7.41%) for any type of home repair or renovation or print out an application by clicking here.

*Annual Percentage Rate

The following financial institutions have provided lending capital for Home HeadQuarters’ FlexFund Home Improvement Loan Program:

Sue’s Story - Eastwood

Sue Straub will tell you that she has lived in Eastwood all of her life. And while she admits that there have been a few brief stints when she has lived elsewhere, she figures that they don’t really count because she has always returned to the neighborhood that she loves.

More than 10 years ago, Sue hired a contractor who promised to replace her aging roof, but a short time after the work was completed, she discovered that the contractor had just added another layer of roofing.

“I knew that I had been taken advantage of, but it would have been difficult to prove. I wasn’t really in a position to take out another high interest home improvement loan,” said Sue, who must make her salary stretch to meet the needs of her family.

A decade later, Sue needed to fully replace her roof to maintain her Eastwood home and decided to take advantage of Home HeadQuarters’ FlexFund Home Improvement Loan Program. The FlexFund Program, made possible through a partnership of 12 area financial institutions, makes affordable home improvement financing available to homeowners throughout Central New York who would not typically qualify for traditional bank financing.

Sue’s financing had the added incentive of a special interest rate buy down to 1% through Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative funding for Eastwood homeowners.

“In the past, when federal funding was used to make loans directly to homeowners, only a handful of families could take advantage of the financing,” said Kerry Quaglia, Home HeadQuarters’ Executive Director. “By using private FlexFund capital to make the loans, federal funding can be applied to lower the interest rate, and hundreds of homeowners can make improvements to their homes. This approach better leverages increasingly scarce federal resources to bring private capital to underserved communities.”

As president of her neighborhood association, Sue helped launch the innovative Eastwood program that more than 130 of her neighbors signed up for and she looks forward to the improvements she expects to see in her neighborhood. As for Sue, she replaced not only her roof, but was able to add a new fence to her property as well.

“Eastwood is a great neighborhood full of great people, and anything that we do to improve our homes just makes it that much better,” said Sue.

Foreclosure Prevention Program

While foreclosure filings appear to be reaching epidemic levels nationally, homeowners in Syracuse are filing at only a slightly increased rate according to Home HeadQuarters’ Foreclosure Prevention Coordinator Kelly Besaw.

“That’s not to say that we’re not busy,” said Ms. Besaw who speaks on average to 20 people a day on foreclosure issues and signs up or refers to other programs, four to five new customers each day.

In this area, city homeowners continue to file foreclosure primarily due to health or employment issues whereas many suburban homeowners who file are seeing the effects of adjustable rate mortgages.

Home HeadQuarters’ Foreclosure Prevention Program, funded through the City of Syracuse, provides direct lender intervention, financial counseling and education and, in some cases, financial relief. If you know of someone who is at risk of falling behind on their mortgage for any reason, suggest they call Home HeadQuarters at (315) 474-1939 or the National Foreclosure HOPE Hotline at (888) 995-HOPE before it’s too late.

Home HeadQuarters is a not-for-profit organization committed to creating housing and related opportunities that improve the lives of underserved Central and Upstate New York people and revitalize the communities in which they live. Established in 1996, Home HeadQuarters offers Nationally-certified Homebuyer Education for first time homebuyers, financial and homeownership counseling, Foreclosure Prevention and real estate planning and development. Home HeadQuarters is also one of the largest regional providers of affordable home and energy improvement loans and grants to area homeowners.