M&T Bank Provides $600,000 to Support Homeownership Education
M&T Bank recently announced that it has provided $600,000 since 2015 to HomeSmartNY members in support of homebuyer education since the beginning of 2015. Forty non-for-profit member housing counseling agencies received grants to provide homeownership education and counseling to individuals, families, seniors, students, veterans and others across New York State.
Just some of the 40 partnerships include:
More than 1,160 homebuyers and homeowners in Western New York benefitted from a $20,000 grant for pre-purchase homeownership and mortgage default / modification classes by Belmont Housing Resources for WNY, the largest HUD-certified housing counseling agency in the Buffalo-Niagara region.
A $20,000 grant helped Home HeadQuarters, Inc. of Syracuse, NY provide homebuyer education and foreclosure prevention counseling to 685 individuals during its 2014/2015 program year. Each year, M&T Bank volunteers also help improve properties in local low-income neighborhoods through HHQ’s Block Blitz Initiative.
Hudson River Housing in Poughkeepsie, NY received a $10,000 grant to promote homeownership and assist homeowners in preserving their investment through their NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center of Duchess County. In 2015, the center helped more than 1,000 households prepare for, achieve or preserve the dream of homeownership.
In Brooklyn, New York 60 first-time home buyers gained mortgage commitments and 121 people in danger of foreclosure kept their homes last year thanks to a $23,500 grant for homeownership counseling programs by Cypress Hills Local Development Corp., a HUD-certified nonprofit housing counseling agency.
M&T Bank was also a sponsor of the HomeSmartNY Annual Statewide Conference, held September 20-21, 2016 in Albany, NY.
Every year HomeSmartNY provides pre-purchase homeownership counseling to over 15,000 households and foreclosure prevention counseling to over 8,000 households. Collaborations between not-for-profit housing counseling agencies and financial institutions such as these support essential programs for stabilizing and strengthening individual households and communities.
The full press release can be viewed at
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