12 | JULY 7 • 2022 

A

s she pursued a career in 
academia, Jaemi Loeb, 
41, and her husband, 
Craig Payst, 49, spent decades or 
so renting and moving from city 
to city. But when the Connecticut 
and North Carolina natives decided 
to establish roots, the couple 
purchased a home in Detroit’s 
Bagley neighborhood in 2019. They 
loved the community feel and the 
blocks of red brick houses and the 
proximity to small businesses, shops 
and restaurants along Livernois 
Avenue.
Down the road, they knew their 
1940s red brick colonial would need 
a new roof. But, unfortunately, some 
severe storms in recent years tore off 
some shingles and pushed up that 
timeframe. That’s when they turned 
to Hebrew Free Loan Detroit.
“Because of grad school and our 
jobs, we bounced around a lot, 
and this was our 10th move in 12 
years,
” said Loeb, now a nonprofit 
information technology consultant. 
“By definition, we did not have 
the financial security that one might 
expect of people in their 40s. We 
had roofers come and tell us we 
were living on borrowed time. Our 
option was to keep limping along 
with some patches until we had 
enough saved or apply for a loan. So, 
we applied for a Hebrew Free Loan 
and, last March, we got a whole new 
roof. And that was a huge relief.
” 
Loeb and Payst are a small 
but growing part of the Jewish 
community making the city of 
Detroit their home, and HFL is 
supporting their homeownership 
with an increase in its MOVE-IN 
DETROIT program that will now 

— for the first time — lend up to 
$20,000 in home improvement loans 
to Jewish homeowners in the city 
aged 40 and younger.
HFL Executive Director David 
Contorer said more than a dozen 
Jewish Detroit homeowners have 
taken advantage of the program 
since its creation in 2018. They’ve 
used the loan to pay for home 
improvement projects like updating 
plumbing and air conditioning 
systems and roof, deck and porch 
repair. With an almost 100 percent 
rate of loan payoff, funds coming 
into the organization get loaned 
back into the Jewish community to 
additional qualified loan recipients. 
“This is the first time Hebrew 
Free Loan has been able to extend 
a loan of this size,
” Contorer said. 
“Our donors are thrilled that Jewish 
young adults are moving into all 
different neighborhoods across 
the city, not to rent, not to flip a 
property but to make a home, a 
life and establish roots in the city, 
and we wanted to make home 

“OUR DONORS ARE THRILLED 
THAT JEWISH YOUNG ADULTS ARE 
MOVING INTO ALL DIFFERENT 

NEIGHBORHOODS ACROSS THE CITY.”

— DAVID CONTORER

OUR COMMUNITY

Hebrew Free Loan provides 
home-improvement loans to 
young Jewish Detroit residents.

 Building a 
Strong 
 Detroit

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Peter Remington 
and Peggy Daitch 

David 
Contorer

