City Living:
Ithaca Style

City Living: Ithaca Style

City Living: Ithaca Style is our print newsletter that promotes Ithaca as a great place to live and work. It comes out three times a year. Below is the lead story from our current issue.

Stories from our current issue include:

	Alice Heise celebrating the 1000th Loan

1000 Reasons to Celebrate

1Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services has one thousand reasons to celebrate the rebirth of Ithaca'sneighborhoods. INHS recently approved its 1000th loan to help an Ithaca resident with affordable housing. This low-interest loan will help Alice Heise purchase her first home in the Washington Park neighborhood of downtown Ithaca.

Alice's goal is to do as much as she can before she turns 30. She was surprised to find out that buying a house would be less expensive than renting an apartment. However, she thought it would be impossible because she's young and didn't have enough income and savings. A friend referred her to Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services. She met with the lending staff and was pleased that she was told the honest truth. "The information I was given was honest and straightforward about how I could reduce my debts and earn more money so I could buy a house," says Heise. "I was so motivated and challenged by what I learned at INHS that I did exactly what they suggested and eight months later I had enough savings and income to buy this house on Park Place."

When she went back to INHS for the second time, Diana Garcia the Director of lending services at INHS told her she was ready to purchase and accompanied her to the bank. They went to Tompkins Trust Company. "The people at the Trust Company are fantastic; they are treating me very well," says Heise.

Heise also got a rehab loan from INHS so that she could have some gutters and her basement fixed. "I would tell anyone who wanted to buy a house to go to INHS," says Heise. "I am 28 and I've bought only two cars in my whole life and then, as the next biggest purchase, a computer-so this is definitely the biggest purchase of my life. Everybody at INHS and Tompkins Trust Company are just great. It's almost no stress."

"For more than 25 years, Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services has been working to help both homeowners and renters achieve better quality, more affordable housing," says INHS Executive Director Paul Mazzarella. "House by house, block by block, these efforts have improved the lives of families and restored the vibrant character of Ithaca's neighborhoods."

INHS loaned a total of $14.8 million, over to the past 25 years, to Alice and others in Ithaca who have either purchased or improved their homes with INHS loans. A Press Conference and party was held on Wednesday, March 12, 2002 to celebrate this success. Speakers at the press conference were Acting Mayor Pat Pryor, Paul Mazzarella, Beth Prentice, Executive Director of the New York Puerto Rico office of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and 1000th loan customer Alice Heise.

In honor of Alice and the INHS 1000th loan, several local businesses contributed gifts and household items to her. They are Thayer Appliance, 15 Steps, Agway, Bishops and Lost Dog Cafe.

Questions?
Contact Kris Hamill at khamill@ithacaNHS.org