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Program Helps Credit-Challenged Lakewoodites Secure Home Repair Loans
We take tremendous pride in the uniqueness of our neighborhoods and the onus is on us, as a community, to preserve our historic housing stock to improve quality of life for current and future Lakewood families.
The Lakewood Pride Fund is an innovative program of LakewoodAlive that leverages a collection of funds to secure home repair loans for Lakewood families who otherwise might not have access to conventional bank financing, helping families complete health and code compliance repairs. It is designed to often be a last-resort option for folks who have nowhere else to turn.
The Lakewood Pride Fund will improve access to bank financing for those who are unable to qualify for conventional bank loans through financial and home repair education. LakewoodAlive launched this program with support from First Federal Lakewood and the City of Lakewood.
LakewoodAlive’s Housing Outreach Program works tirelessly to connect residents to available resources to keep their homes in good repair, and this program is now another tool in our organization’s tool box. This program will not only help to maintain our homes, but it will also improve the client’s credit score with each on-time payment.
The ideal candidate is someone who perhaps had a temporary job loss or a life change that made staying on top of their household bills difficult, but are now working to get back on track. The Lakewood Pride Fund will help these clients make essential health, safety and code compliance improvements ultimately enhancing their quality of life, one repair at a time.
The Pride Fund serves a tool to help families repair their homes, as well as their credit, by educating them about simple behavior changes like setting up a budget or creating a home maintenance schedule. The program is only available to Lakewood residents who own and occupy their home, and it is currently able to serve households that are considered up to 120% of area median income, with loans capped at $8,500.
For more information regarding the Lakewood Pride Fund, including access to the Lakewood Pride Fund Application, please visit LakewoodAlive.org/PrideFund or contact Allison Urbanek at 216-521-0655. Please email completed applications to aurbanek@lakewoodalive.org.