“I always thought that I wanted to help people,” explains Maria Luengas, Executive Director of H.O.M.E. DuPage, when asked how she ended up in the field of housing counseling. But in her prior work, “I wasn’t necessarily helping people with their goals. So I looked for something, and I saw this housing counseling position, and because I had a mortgage background and I spoke Spanish, they gave me an opportunity.” After getting her certifications, Maria began her work as a housing counselor, leading to over ten years of experience in the field and ultimately the position of executive director, a role in which she has helped H.O.M.E. DuPage expand their housing counseling services to guide more people in achieving their financial goals.
Many people don’t know about the potential benefits of housing counseling services, which can help clients with a variety of challenges, including navigating purchasing a home, getting a mortgage, funding home repairs, and the foreclosure process. “We go to community events all the time and people say ‘I didn’t know,’” Maria says. “Our services tend to be free, although this depends on the program,” she adds. “We do have a couple of people that say ‘Oh really, you’re free?’ and they are hesitant to start the process, but once they realize [they’re] getting this information they come back and say ‘I am so glad that I went through this.’”
H.O.M.E. DuPage has been a member of Housing Action for at least 20 years and is one of 34 sub-grantees in our Housing Action Counseling Network. When Housing Action was awarded just over $600,000 from HUD through a newly launched Homeownership Initiative program, we were able to sub-grant funds to a handful of agencies, including H.O.M.E. DuPage. The goal of the new program is to promote sustainable homeownership by providing access to quality housing counseling services and for housing counselors to build strong relationships with clients. “The purpose of that program is to get people to get a mortgage, to be able to purchase a home, and then come back. It’s purchasing a home and actually coming back to see where you’re at with your finances after you purchased,” Maria explained. The housing counselors have found that a major barrier to homeownership was budgeting. “A lot of the people‘s highest expense was fast food. So once they realized that they were spending $700-$800 a week on fast food, and that could actually help them if they reduced that amount. That can actually go towards the mortgage payment or the extra expenses of when you are now a homeowner and you have to do the repairs and the maintenance.”
The Homeownership Initiative also has provided a launching pad for the development of H.O.M.E. DuPage’s new post-purchase counseling workshop. Maria explains, “if you’re going to do pre-purchase counseling, we want to be able to see you all the way through and not [only] see you when you’re having problems making your mortgage payment.”
Inspired by the grant’s follow-up structure, H.O.M.E. DuPage is developing their post-purchase workshop to provide a structured way to stay in touch with clients who have purchased homes. Although some are hesitant to attend a one-on-one appointment, “ If we say ‘we’re going to have a workshop and we’re going to talk about what your mortgage statement looks like,’or ‘we’re going to have a handyman talk about what you can do around the house for maintenance,’ maybe that’s going to incentivize them as well,” says Maria.
H.O.M.E. DuPage continues to expand their programming even beyond topics directly related to the grant. “One of our two coaches, Jill Kimak, just received certification for the NACCC credit counseling. The other coach, Nereida Ortega, is working on that as well, and I just started providing reverse mortgage counseling,” Maria says. H.O.M.E. DuPage has a lot planned for the coming year, but all of it is essential to ensuring more Illinoisans can get and remain in their homes.