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Real Life Stories
 Profile: Radio Spreads the Word About Homeownership to Rural Latino Communities
Product: $25,000 grant from the Bank’s AHEAD Program, a recoverable grant program that supports economic development and housing projects during the conception and early development stages.
Partners: Rabobank, N.A., Radio Bilingüe, Inc., ACORN Housing Corporation
Lack of education about the homebuying process has long been a significant barrier to homeownership. While many communities have benefited from a range of financial literacy campaigns, non-urban Spanish-speaking populations have been particularly hard to reach by traditional methods.
To address this challenge, the Bank and member institution Rabobank, N.A., fostered a unique collaboration between Radio Bilingüe and ACORN Housing that combined targeted Spanish-language radio outreach with hands-on educational workshops. Called “Camino a Tu Casa,” this ground-breaking financial literacy initiative was designed to help low-income families in California’s most rural agricultural communities obtain financial counseling, access affordable home loan products, and avoid predatory lending.
Using Spanish-language talk radio to connect with prospective Latino homebuyers in targeted areas, the campaign featured a series of live call-in talk shows that were heard by thousands of rural radio listeners in the Imperial, Salinas, and San Joaquin Valleys. Radio Bilingüe, a nonprofit, community-based public radio network, broadcast the talk shows on six FM stations in rural California for six months and made them available nationally via satellite, while ACORN Housing followed-up with listeners who called the programs and distributed printed promotional materials through its network of local offices and at events held in targeted cities.
The interactive Spanish-language broadcasts, in which radio hosts, guests, and audiences engaged in on-air questions and answers about preparing for homeownership, generated more than 500 telephone inquiries. Nearly 400 prospective homebuyers attended educational workshops that followed the broadcasts, which were presented by ACORN’s HUD-certified homeownership counselors in Fresno, Sacramento, and San Jose. Workshop participants learned about the many unique programs available to first-time homebuyers and received expert guidance on how to evaluate and repair their credit, search for a loan, and guard against predatory lending.
“Camino a Tu Casa” demonstrates how a better understanding of the purchase process can create more homeowners among hard-to-reach populations. Many of those drawn to the workshops by the radio programs have continued to work with ACORN counselors to achieve their goals, including Rose Mary Chacon, who contacted ACORN after listening to a broadcast on Radio Bilingüe. “ACORN counseling helped me realize that I could be a homeowner,” Ms. Chacon said, adding that ACORN helped her address her credit issues and qualify for loan. Conducted between September 2006 and February 2007, this innovative initiative has already helped to create 73 first-time homebuyers, while another 98 families are in the process of purchasing a home.
The program received a total of $60,000—a $25,000 grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco’s Access to Housing and Economic Assistance for Development (AHEAD) Program, a $5,000 contribution from member institution Rabobank, and an additional $30,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco as part of its Financial Education Initiative. The grants funded curriculum and materials development, program development, studio production costs, and air time.
The collaboration between Radio Bilingüe and ACORN Housing has been a huge success. “We reached thousands of families with consumer information and resources that can lead consumers to purchase a home,” says Hugo Morales, Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe. “Housing is so important to creating a healthy community and building assets for Latino communities.”
July 2007
Back to Real Life Stories
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Real Life Stories
Profile: Radio Spreads the Word About Homeownership to Rural Latino Communities
Product: $25,000 grant from the Bank’s AHEAD Program, a recoverable grant program that supports economic development and housing projects during the conception and early development stages.
Partners: Rabobank, N.A., Radio Bilingüe, Inc., ACORN Housing Corporation
Lack of education about the homebuying process has long been a significant barrier to homeownership. While many communities have benefited from a range of financial literacy campaigns, non-urban Spanish-speaking populations have been particularly hard to reach by traditional methods.
To address this challenge, the Bank and member institution Rabobank, N.A., fostered a unique collaboration between Radio Bilingüe and ACORN Housing that combined targeted Spanish-language radio outreach with hands-on educational workshops. Called “Camino a Tu Casa,” this ground-breaking financial literacy initiative was designed to help low-income families in California’s most rural agricultural communities obtain financial counseling, access affordable home loan products, and avoid predatory lending.
Using Spanish-language talk radio to connect with prospective Latino homebuyers in targeted areas, the campaign featured a series of live call-in talk shows that were heard by thousands of rural radio listeners in the Imperial, Salinas, and San Joaquin Valleys. Radio Bilingüe, a nonprofit, community-based public radio network, broadcast the talk shows on six FM stations in rural California for six months and made them available nationally via satellite, while ACORN Housing followed-up with listeners who called the programs and distributed printed promotional materials through its network of local offices and at events held in targeted cities.
The interactive Spanish-language broadcasts, in which radio hosts, guests, and audiences engaged in on-air questions and answers about preparing for homeownership, generated more than 500 telephone inquiries. Nearly 400 prospective homebuyers attended educational workshops that followed the broadcasts, which were presented by ACORN’s HUD-certified homeownership counselors in Fresno, Sacramento, and San Jose. Workshop participants learned about the many unique programs available to first-time homebuyers and received expert guidance on how to evaluate and repair their credit, search for a loan, and guard against predatory lending.
“Camino a Tu Casa” demonstrates how a better understanding of the purchase process can create more homeowners among hard-to-reach populations. Many of those drawn to the workshops by the radio programs have continued to work with ACORN counselors to achieve their goals, including Rose Mary Chacon, who contacted ACORN after listening to a broadcast on Radio Bilingüe. “ACORN counseling helped me realize that I could be a homeowner,” Ms. Chacon said, adding that ACORN helped her address her credit issues and qualify for loan. Conducted between September 2006 and February 2007, this innovative initiative has already helped to create 73 first-time homebuyers, while another 98 families are in the process of purchasing a home.
The program received a total of $60,000—a $25,000 grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco’s Access to Housing and Economic Assistance for Development (AHEAD) Program, a $5,000 contribution from member institution Rabobank, and an additional $30,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco as part of its Financial Education Initiative. The grants funded curriculum and materials development, program development, studio production costs, and air time.
The collaboration between Radio Bilingüe and ACORN Housing has been a huge success. “We reached thousands of families with consumer information and resources that can lead consumers to purchase a home,” says Hugo Morales, Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe. “Housing is so important to creating a healthy community and building assets for Latino communities.”
July 2007
Back to Real Life Stories
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