Binghamton Home and Energy Improvement Loans Available

While Home HeadQuarters is not yet providing home and energy loans in Bismarck, North Dakota, we are providing low-interest, flexible financing to homeowners in Binghamton. The city and surrounding neighborhoods are considered underserved areas for affordable home improvement lending, especially for homeowners who have not yet built any equity in their home and are forced to borrow at higher interest rates and associated costs. For more information on affordable home improvement loans click here.

Court-Woodlawn and Valley Neighborhoods 1% Home Improvement Loans Ready to Go

The latest 1% home improvement loans made possible through the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative, Congressman Walsh and the City of Syracuse are ready and waiting for neighborhood homeowners to apply! Call Home HeadQuarters or click here to learn more.

Carole Horan

Near Westside Homeowner

Last week, Carole Horan celebrated 36 years living in her home on the Near Westside. When she first purchased the home, she only had two things in mind, she needed something large enough to fit her family of nine and she wanted to live in the city. She has grown to love her neighborhood of choice over the past three and a half decades and feels that now, more than at any time before, she is living in the right place at the right time.

“There is an energy to everything that is going on right now in this neighborhood,” says Carole. “It’s wonderful that Near Westside residents are being listened to.”

Carole Horan

That energy, as Carole calls it, is a result of all the projects currently underway on the Near Westside and most of these she can see from her front porch. Homes are being rehabbed, residents are getting together and meeting, a ramshackle house on her block is being taken down and new construction is going up in its place—there is something happening almost every day. Last week Carole and her neighbors on Tully Street experienced one such project first hand by being the recipients of a “Block Blitz”. This one-day rehab and landscaping event held by Home HeadQuarters with partner United Way and volunteers from Carrier Corporation, Syracuse Center of Excellence, CNY Labor Council, and Grimaldi & Nelkin CPAs, allowed homeowners to receive new siding, new exterior paint, new landscaping and other exterior improvements to improve curb appeal throughout the block and create a showcase for the neighborhood.

This fall, Home HeadQuarters is sending Carole and a Near Westside resident team to California to take part in NeighborWorks® America’s Community Leadership Institute. The training, which hosts more than 900 participants from across the United States, provides resident teams with an opportunity to put together an action plan addressing specific needs within their neighborhood. The training is just one more way for this, as she puts it, “blissfully retired” homeowner to stay involved in the neighborhood she loves.

“There’s a good spirit in this neighborhood, we’re all like family,” says Carole. “How many people can say that they can send their kids to school, work, worship, shop, go out to eat and live all within their very own neighborhood?”

Near Westside Block Blitz

Two weeks ago, 60 or so volunteers and homeowners, through the occasional shower and constant 95 degree temperature, helped make Home HeadQuarters’ Tully Street Block Blitz a great success. With some heavy lifting from the United Way, Carrier Corporation, Syracuse Center of Excellence, the Near Westside Initiative, the NYS Labor Council and Grimaldi & Nelkin CPAs, volunteers painted new siding, trim and fences, cleared debris, and landscaped including planting, clearing, moving topsoil and mulch and much more. Thanks to everyone who volunteered and to the United Way, Gasparini Landscaping and David Smith Trucking for their material donations. For photo highlights of the day click here. Or to see some neighborhood and stakeholder comments, check out the Near Westside blog.

Home HeadQuarters’ HomeOwnership Center Adds Two New Counselors

In an effort to respond to the increasing demand for foreclosure prevention activities and counseling, especially outside the city of Syracuse and throughout Onondaga County, Home HeadQuarters has added two housing counselors to its nationally-certified HomeOwnership Center.

Rickey Brown


Mark Carter

Rickey Brown will provide direct foreclosure prevention counseling services while helping customers become more familiar with the mortgage industry and assisting them in credit and budgeting. Mr. Brown brings a managerial finance background from both his own business and a grocery chain to the Home HeadQuarters team.

New counselor Mark Carter will be responsible for conducting Home Buyer Education Classes, providing pre and post housing counseling services, assisting with budgeting and credit repair, and advocating on behalf of customers as needed. Mr. Carter most recently worked as the Director of Community Outreach for Arc of Onondaga where he helped serve people with developmental disabilities.

Thank You to Annual Event Sponsors and Attendees!

Thank you to everyone who helped make Home HeadQuarters’ Annual Celebration a success. Close to $70,000 was raised to support our homeownership, planning and neighborhood revitalization efforts on the city’s Near Westside. Highlights included two new scholarship programs for Syracuse residents named in honor of Congressman Jim Walsh from both Syracuse University and NeighborWorks® America. Thanks again to our sponsors:

• The Gifford Foundation
• NeighborWorks® America
• Syracuse Center of Excellence
• Syracuse University
• M&T Bank
• Syracuse Chamber of Commerce
• Enterprise Foundation
• KS&R
• WCNY Connected
• Community Preservation Corporation
• Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors
• KeyBank

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.