“If anyone comes to Far South and they say ‘I need help with housing’, they’re going to get service somehow, some way,” Director of Housing Services Cornelius Sams, Sr. says. “We don’t deny anyone that uses the word housing, because it’s foundational to everything…Especially in Chicago, if you don’t have shelter, you’re in trouble, especially when it gets below zero.”
Cornelius has been with Far South CDC, which offers a variety of services to communities across the Far South Side of Chicago, for years. Far South CDC is one of 34 sub-grantees in our Housing Action Counseling Network; in addition to distributing HUD funds to these organizations, Housing Action provides our sub-grantees with one-on-one guidance and assists them in navigating HUD approval and passing annual reviews. Far South CDC has been in our network for nearly 10 years.
Cornelius Sams, Sr., Director of Housing Services at Far South CDC
Cornelius’ interest in the housing counseling career stemmed from his time working as a loan officer. He saw how confused many people were about the homebuying process and how easily someone could be pushed into signing agreements that they did not understand. “I saw other loan officers rushing people, urging people to ‘hurry up and sign here’ because a lot of it was commission based so you’ve got to meet the quota,” he explains. This setup is dangerous for uninformed buyers. “People get so excited about buying a home. They don’t understand that there’s a reason why there’s 30 pages of documents you have to sign and 99% of people don’t read it. They really count on someone to slow down and give them that education about what’s going on.”
Ultimately, Cornelius realized, “I’ve got to get to them the step before me.” When Cornelius was a Loan Officer, he was invited to present at a HUD Pre-Purchase group education event at Genesis Housing Development (which later merged with Far South CDC), and immediately after the HUD event he later called Genesis asking to become a housing counselor. “My passion is helping people, but my passion is also dealing with finance, so putting it together is how I started my career as a housing counselor,” Cornelius reflects.
The services offered by Far South CDC can help clients at any point in the homebuying process. “We can help anyone at any stage of housing, whether it’s rental, pre-purchase, post-purchase, or foreclosure prevention. We also do financial coaching and disaster counseling.” Whatever challenges the client might be facing, according to Cornelius, “Wherever you are, we’re going to meet you right there where you are.” Client intake starts with a pre-assessment “because a lot of times people may think ‘I want to do this’. We use [the pre-assessment] to get a little bit of background on what the situation is, because there are certain people, for example, that might want repairs on the home–but they’re three months behind [on mortgage payments], so we gotta slow them down. You’re in court, we gotta deal with the court situation first, then we can help with repairs.”
Cornelius’ passions give him the drive he needs to continue to serve his clients. The stresses of being a housing counselor are often overlooked. “You really have to have a passion in this field,” Cornelius explains. “You’re going to have some people that just panic. They’re scared, they’ve never seen a court summons, they’ve never been asked to go to court for a mortgage. You have some people that are renters and the landlords are trying to do illegal evictions and we have to calm them down. They’re coming to us panicking and scared, but they’re depending on us to help guide them to fix the situation.”
Despite the challenges, Cornelius recognizes that housing counseling really can change the course of his clients’ lives. “I’m going to treat you the way I would like to be treated. I’m going to put 100% in, like I would want someone to put 100% in to help me. That’s the way that I look at every client that comes. You treat people the way, if you were in desperate need and you came to an organization, how would you want to be treated?”
Organizations like Far South CDC help their communities become more stable. Access to housing counseling resources ensures that people can put down roots in a community and avoid displacement from their homes. “We help renters in the community, we help people in the community achieve the American Dream and get thousands of dollars of grant assistance to help in their journey, and we help people in the community get the most out of their homes by assisting with home repair options and resources,” Cornelius says. Housing Action is committed to building the field of housing counseling in both Illinois communities and beyond, aiming to help more low- to moderate-income families everywhere access the knowledge and resources they need to find and keep safe, affordable housing.