Program expands investment in New Haven communities
11/3/2011 — Yale New Haven Hospital today celebrates the 5th year anniversary of its Home — Home Ownership Made Easier — program that provides eligible full-time employees with up to $10,000 in forgivable five-year loans, as well as other incentives and home buying support, when they purchase a home in the city of New Haven. The hospital will pay down the amount of the loan if the employee continues to work at YNHH and live in the home for at least five years.
In addition, hospital employees who purchase a home in one of four New Haven neighborhoods — the Hill, Dwight, West River, and City Point — all adjacent to the YNHH campus, are eligible for a $200 a month mortgage subsidy for the first two years of their home ownership.
"Our Home program has been extremely successful with 73 homes being purchased by employees during these first five years," said Kevin Myatt, senior vice president, Human Resources, YNHH. "Our employees are our most valuable asset and New Haven is our home, so it makes perfect sense to invest in initiatives like the Home program that help both our employees and our community.
First Niagara Bank, YNHH's partner in the Home program, offers program participants classes on home financing, in addition to competitive, below market interest mortgages. Yale New Haven offers homebuyers education on house selection, property maintenance and rehabilitation. Additionally, counseling and technical assistance is often provided by community housing agencies.
"First Niagara is pleased to work with an institution like Yale New Haven Hospital, that is so forward-thinking in its commitment to its employees," said First Niagara Senior Vice President of Mortgage Lending, Thomas Hylinski. "The HOME program is helping to make the dream of homeownership a reality for people who may not have had the ability to achieve it on their own, and we are proud to be able to provide local lending expertise to first-time home buyers in New Haven."
Yale New Haven Hospital is a nationally recognized, 966-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine. Yale New Haven was founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826 and today, the hospital complex includes Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. YNHH has about 8,000 employees and a combined medical staff of about 3,600 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. YNHH is accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a Magnet hospital, national confirmation that the nursing staff provides outstanding patient care.
First Niagara, through its wholly owned subsidiary, First Niagara Bank, N.A., is a multi-state community-oriented bank that currently has $31 billion in assets, $19 billion in deposits, 346 branches and 5,000 employees providing financial services to individuals, families and businesses across Upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.fnfg.com.
