Home HeadQuarters is a non-profit housing and community development organization and certified Community Development Financial Institution whose mission is to create housing and related opportunities and services in Central and Upstate New York that improve the lives of underserved people and revitalize the communities in which they live. The organization was founded in 1996 to address the declining owner-occupancy rate and overall disinvestment in the city of Syracuse. While Home HeadQuarters now offers a wide range of programs and services, its initial strategies focused on implementing a home improvement lending program and providing homeownership education to create new city home buyers and maintain and improve city neighborhoods.

In 1999, Home HeadQuarters joined the national NeighborWorks® America Network, and became a certified NeighborWorks® HomeOwnership Center, essentially, a one-stop-shop for all homeownership needs from pre- to post-purchase. Since then, Home HeadQuarters has become one of the leading providers of homebuyer education and counseling in the country, regularly ranking in the top ten of all 240+ NeighborWorks organizations nationwide.

Home HeadQuarters was the lead administrator of the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative (SNI) program created by Congressman James T. Walsh. Home HeadQuarters successfully delivered the majority of SNI's $81 million in housing and neighborhood investment to more than a dozen neighborhoods and target areas and hundreds of families in the city of Syracuse. Programming included neighborhood planning and development, resident capacity building, home improvement loans, mini-grants, home equity protection, purchase and rehab grants, new construction, substantial rehab, demolition and more.

Today, Home HeadQuarters serves residents throughout Upstate New York. Home HeadQuarters also acts as the primary housing delivery agency in the city of Syracuse by substantially rehabilitating distressed properties, building new homes for purchase by first-time homebuyers through the city’s Resurgent Neighborhood Initiative and providing low to moderate-income families with Urgent Care, Closing Cost Assistance and Syracuse Homeowner Assistance programs made possible with federal Community Development Block Grants and HOME Funding. Home HeadQuarters works in conjunction with the Greater Syracuse Land Bank by redeveloping their vacant properties and providing purchase and construction financing to other homebuyers and investors developing Land Bank properties. As a neighborhood development organization, Home HeadQuarters also includes affiliates CNY Affordable Realty, the only non-profit realty in Central New York, Opportunity Headquarters, a full-service construction crew and Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corp. (SMNC), providing affordable rental housing on Syracuse’s South and West sides.

Currently, the organization is focusing on initiatives and programs that work to create equitable housing and financing opportunities for underserved people; end lead poisoning; fill gaps in the lending market by providing financing for local investors, MWBE certified contractors and other non-profits; and get Upstate New York families climate ready and resilient with NYS programs like Resilient Retrofits. Home HeadQuarters is also the non-profit partner for the Syracuse Financial Empowerment Center, a City of Syracuse enterprise that offers free, professional financial counseling to any city of Syracuse resident.

The organization has played a major role in stabilizing and revitalizing Central and Upstate New York neighborhoods by directly facilitating more than 5,500 homebuyers; providing more than $152 million in home improvement loans and grants and $90 million in down payment assistance and first mortgage financing; and redeveloping more than 1,400 properties through substantial rehabilitation of formerly vacant properties, new single-family construction, selective demolition and more. More than 26,000 people have come to Home HeadQuarters seeking education and counseling on buying a home, building family wealth, becoming credit smart or keeping their home from foreclosure. Home HeadQuarters is committed to serving individuals and families of color, read about our unique mortgage program here.