Help with home ownership is here

MILLERTON — On Thursday, June 9, the North East Community Center (NECC) in Millerton hosted an open house in honor of the opening of a satellite office for the NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center.The celebration, which fell during National NeighborWorks Week, introduced the community to the NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center and the services it provides, including homeownership education, landlord training and budget and credit counseling.The services will be available to everyone in the region. Those who are renting, buying or managing a property, or even thinking about doing any of those things, are encouraged to take advantage of the educational services the agency provides.Most of the services are free, but some have a minimal fee. Both group workshops and one-on-one sessions will be available.The satellite office will be open one day per week, but the schedule will be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of the community. The services will also be tailored to be very region-specific.Elizabeth Celaya, the community relations manager at Hudson River Housing, said she is very excited about the new office. She said that the staff members love Millerton and are happy that they will have the chance to work there.Celaya stressed that although some of the agency’s services have small fees, the company is still a nonprofit, mission-based organization that strives to be an objective partner with the community and provide whatever is best for the clients.She also believes that all areas, including the northeastern region of Dutchess County that the new office will work with, could benefit from the services, citing a statistic that states all people who have gone through the agency’s educational training have been able to prevent themselves from going into foreclosure.Both the mayor of Millerton and Congressman Chris Gibson were among those who spoke at the open house event.Gibson spoke about the value of these types of services and said that they go hand-in-hand with the services provided by the government.For more information about the Hudson River Housing’s NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center at NECC, contact 845-454-9288 or mlinge@hudsonriverhousing.org. More information about the services provided can also be found on the web at www.hudsonriverhousing.org.

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