Courtesy Photo Pictured from left to right are Northland Area Federal Credit Union Commercial Loan Officer Barbara Sealy and Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan Executive Director Ted Fines.

ALPENA — Northland Area Federal Credit Union was proud to partner with Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan 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 identified five homeowners this year who had needs for making their homes easier to navigate as they grow older or also in the case of a disability, retrofit a home to enable the members access to parts of their home that had become troublesome to manage. The grants were awarded in Oscoda, Mio, Hillman and Alpena.

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

The grants 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 ($15 million this year for Indiana, Michigan and Ohio) 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-served basis.

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

Senior Vice President of Lending Jack Eling said of the 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.”

NAFCU has 15 branches in Northeast Michigan and more than 47,000 members. Northlands’ new headquarters facility is currently being built in Alpena on Bagley Street and is expected to be completed in winter of 2020.