Case 2
SFHDC HELPS FAMILIES BUILD ASSETS TO ACHIEVE FINANCIAL STABILITY AND TO PREVENT POVERTY!
MEET JANET CHAMBERLAIN A FIRST-GENERATION HOMEBUYER...
Janet Chamberlain is a hard-working young woman, who lives with her mom in a public housing apartment in Bayview Hunters Point. She has been receiving ongoing credit counseling at SFHDC’s Homeownership Center since November 2006. Janet lives between her mom’s home and her grandmother’s apartment. When the property manager at her mom’s place gives her problems for staying there, she shuttles over to her grandmother’s place. Like many Americans, Janet has a dream of one day becoming a homeowner. She will be the first in her family to realize such an achievement of financial independence. Unfamiliar with the process of buying a home, she sought advice from SFHDC’s financial and housing counseling experts, Ed Donaldson and Careem Conley.
For nearly 2 years, Ms. Chamberlain has worked with both Ed and Careem to receive free housing and financial counseling services. She currently works full-time in construction making a moderate income. The major barriers she faced when coming to SFHDC were credit charge-offs, collections from various creditors, and lack of savings or other assets. SFHDC counselors provided her with a full assessment of her finances and focused primarily on creating a budget, savings plan, and action plan to help her qualify for a home loan. Since then, she has been saving regularly on a monthly basis; negotiated and settled most collections on her credit report, and has only two accounts remaining with a combined balance of less than $200. In the process, SFHDC has helped to update and dispute any incorrect items on her credit report to accurately reflect her credit profile and eliminate barriers that may prevent her from receiving an affordable loan.
Over a 10 month period, Janet was able to get a secure credit card and auto loan to reestablish her credit. SFHDC helped her raise her FICO score by over 50 points. Her middle score is currently around 620 and climbing upward. She is now less than 6 months away from becoming a first-generation homeowner. Over the next 2 months, she will attend SFHDC’s free Community Homebuyers Workshop to earn a certificate of completion, which signifies that Janet has completed SFHDC’s 6-8 hour HUD certified pre-purchase program, and is now eligible for down-payment assistance and below-market-rate housing while receiving housing subsidiaries of up to $180,000. She will look for housing in the next 3 to 6 months, and hopefully move into her new home before the summer.
