Financial Empowerment Blueprint - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

• Phase 3 (2026-Onward): Develop budget and funding mechanism for financial management providers for Pathways participants • Through these enhancements, South Bend residents benefit from an enhanced pool of employers, helping residents increase income and obtain more secure jobs with participating employers as a result. These enhancements provide greater opportunities for longer-term employment options, helping more South Bend workers obtain a more secure financial foundation. Enhancement 3: Department of Community Investment’s Efforts to Support Homeownership The City of South Bend is a HUD Designated Housing Counseling Agency that provides a variety of counseling services including budget / financial management counseling, pre-purchase counseling, post-purchase counseling (in coordination with Community Homebuyers Corporation), and mortgage default counseling. Financial literacy and financial management are foundational skills needed to build wealth. These skills and knowledge about homebuying and homeownership are not always taught or passed down within families, including lower income households. Counseling services help provide education and empower individuals to build assets and financial stability. The Community Homebuyers Corporation (CHC) is a nonprofit organization, composed of seven financial institutions who, in partnership with the City of South Bend, offers the Homeownership Assistance Program to help people get a good home at an affordable price. Those that qualify receive a mortgage through CHC and a grant in the form of a forgivable second mortgage equal to 20% of the home purchase price. Eligibility requirements include income qualifying for the program. As shown earlier, with income levels in Kennedy and LaSalle Park lower compared to South Bend and other neighborhoods in South Bend, a supportive applicant referral network or targeted outreach and education efforts could increase the CHC’s visibility in the Kennedy and LaSalle Park neighborhoods. Furthermore, in past years, the City has reviewed and examined code violations to determine where the greatest need for housing stock maintenance is, operating under the assumption that areas with larger proportions of code violations indicated that area’s housing stock needed assistance and residents could benefit from financial assistance to make repairs on their own. Using this code violation data, the City geographically targeted its home repair program to address areas with the greatest needs for home repair. This example serves as a model for a geographically-specific strategy in Kennedy and LaSalle Park to address the areas with the greatest opportunity for increasing homeownership. This approach could be beneficial to building wealth in these neighborhoods. To financially empower asset builders, the City will work with the Community Homebuyer’s Corporation to increase its visibility and the City will work through the financial counseling of the Financial Empowerment Center to better prepare residents to be potential applicants to receive asset acquisition support. Community Homebuyer Corporation Enhancements KPI TARGET METRIC DESIRED OUTCOME Pathways employer partners per year Growing by 20 participating employers per year Increase the number of participating employers to grow awareness and programmatic impact Wage increases of Pathways participants per year Increase wages of program participants by 3-5% annually Improve financial foundation of Pathways participants to increase ability to build wealth Promotions gained by Pathways participants per year Increase the number of Pathways participants who hold leadership positions by 20% Provide Pathway participants with more secure employment options to help financial stability Key Performance Indicators (2023 – 2024) FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT BLUEPRINT 31