Northland and Partner Granted $39,000 to Support Housing Accessibility

Northland Area Federal Credit Union was proud to partner with Alpena Habitat for Humanity for $39,465 of grants from Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis (FHLBI) to improve homes in Northeast Michigan for 2019.

The grants are specifically granted to assist members with providing greater accessibility to existing homes. Together, Habitat for Humanity and Northland Area identified five homeowners who had needs for making their homes easier to navigate as they grow older, or in the case of a disability, retrofit a home to enable members to access parts of their home that had become troublesome to manage. The grants were awarded in Oscoda, Mio, Hillman and Alpena.

Northland Area CEO Pete Dzuris commented, “Northland’s commitment to affordable and accessible housing is a cornerstone of our lending programs. These grants are a great tool to assist those members who can’t afford a loan to make these needed improvements to keep their homes a safe and functional part of their lives.”

The grants ($15,000,000 this year for Indiana, Michigan and Ohio) are available up to $12,000 for retrofitting homes for accessibility or for deferred maintenance, which often occurs as homes and homeowners age. The grant applications are available starting in May of each year and there are income and program requirements that are part of the application process, however there are no credit requirements. Funding is limited so grants are awarded on a first come first serve basis.

FHLBI is one of 11 independent regional cooperative banks across the US. Michigan financial partners like Northland are assisted by the Indianapolis branch to provide low cost mortgage rates and products to serve member in Northeast Michigan. The Indianapolis office also assists borrowers in Indiana and Ohio.

Senior Vice President of Lending Jack Eling thanked FHBLI and Habitat for their partnership, “FHLBI is a wonderful community minded partner to give back millions of dollars each year to its partner institutions in the form of grants from the revenues of their low cost lending programs. Habitat for Humanity really helps identify those in need as they have a commitment to helping our communities find and improve housing.”