Bank of America has invested $2.5 million to help Detroit residents repair their homes with 0% interest rates and support improvements and growth in Detroit’s neighborhoods
The $2.5 million investment includes a $1.5 million reinvestment in the 0% Interest Home Repair Program, which began in 2015, and a $1 million operating grant to Invest Detroit to support and expand its Strategic Neighborhood Fund and Affordable Housing Leverage Fund. Those dollars will go toward funding operations, such as administering the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, as well as small business and real estate loan programs.
While downtown has vastly improved, Detroit’s lifeblood is its neighborhoods and its residents. If they don’t take part of the city’s rebirth, it will not succeed. The dollars from Bank of America will provide opportunities that support entrepreneurship, create jobs and make homeownership more attainable.
The 0% Interest Home Repair Program offers 10-year, interest-free loans from $5,000 to $25,000 to help Detroit homeowners invest in and repair their homes – promoting public health and safety, increasing property values, and helping residents secure and maintain homeowners insurance.
The program is administered by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Since its inception in 2015 it has helped 500 families fix their homes. For more information, visit www.detroithomeloans.org.
To qualify residents must meet the following requirement:
- Must own and live in the home for at least six months prior to applying. Vacant, unoccupied units are not eligible.
- Low to moderate income homeowners can apply no matter where they live. View the income table to learn more.
- Regardless of income, homeowners in HUD designated areas in each city council district can still apply. See the map.
- The minimum credit score is 560. Debt to income ratio cannot exceed 45% and housing ratio cannot exceed 35%. Loan to value cannot exceed 150%.
- Homeowner’s insurance and property taxes must be current.
- The homeowner must be able to afford the loan payments.
In addition, Bank of America’s Community Homeownership Commitment offers a Down Payment Grant program that can save home buyers thousands of dollars in closing costs when purchasing a home. Through the program, Bank of America eligible buyers 3 percent of the home purchase price, up to $10,000, to be used as a down payment, with no repayment necessary.
Those qualified may also be interested in the bank’s closing grant. It is a lender credit that provides up to $7,500 for non-recurring closing costs, or in some instances, to buy down their interest rate. To apply, residents can visit bankofamerica.com/firsthome.
“Bank of America is committed to investing in the people, places and projects that move Detroit forward. Our neighborhood strategy is providing support that spurs economic mobility for individuals and families,” says Matt Elliott, Michigan market president at Bank of America. “This foundation grant and the business investments we’ve made to support entrepreneurship, create jobs and make home ownership more attainable are helping to drive economic mobility and strengthen Detroit now and for future generations.”
Elliott made the announcement at Detroit Sip, a Motor City Match recipient in the Livernois-McNichols neighborhood. The bank’s Motor City Match program gives grants to entrepreneurs and helps them find suitable buildings in which to locate their businesses.
“Detroit’s comeback cannot succeed unless it includes its neighborhoods,” Mayor Mike Duggan says. “That’s why these programs supported by Bank of America are so vitally important. They are helping longtime Detroiters participate in the city’s recovery by helping them start their own business, purchase a new home or renovate the home they’ve lived in since long before our city’s comeback began.”
The $2.5 million investment is in addition to Bank of America’s $3 million cumulative philanthropic giving in the Detroit area in 2019.
Bank of America invests $1.5 million in 0% interest rate program to help Detroiters with home repairs added by M Lapham on
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