Together, we’re turning fear into faith and renters like Tyrise into homeowners

Everyone should have a safe, affordable place to call home. Homeownership should never be a luxury; it’s fundamental to a family's stability, health, legacy, and generational wealth. Yet in the communities we serve, Woodlawn and Washington Park, too many families cannot call the place they live their home.

In Washington Park, where roughly nine out of ten residents are black, only one in eight households owns their home. In Woodlawn, the rate is slightly better, about one in five households own a home. These figures, drawn from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) community data snapshot, 2019–2023 ACS estimates, paint a stark picture of racial inequity: neighborhoods rich in culture and history, yet locked out of the stability and dignity that come with ownership.

“Our Housing Equity Initiative was inspired by the Woodlawn and Washington Park communities,” explains Kayla Williams, our Director of Housing Development and Property Management. “We surveyed residents to understand their greatest needs, and what we heard was clear - it was homeownership, it was education around housing, it was assistance with property taxes, and it was the lack of affordable housing stock. That’s what inspired the framework for our Housing Equity Initiative (HEI).”

HEI stands on three pillars: Retention, Readiness, and Revitalization. Through Retention, we assist  families with their property taxes delinquencies, while offering financial literacy workshops, and linking them to long-term stability resources. Our approach to Readiness, equips residents with the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions and navigate the home-buying process. Through Revitalization, we develop vacant properties into beautiful, energy-efficient homes, creating deeply affordable ownership opportunities for families in Woodlawn and Washington Park.

When 41-year-old Tyrise, a single mother of two, heard about our Home Buyer Readiness Program, she enrolled in 2024.

For Tyrise, homeownership is more than a goal, it’s a promise she made to her children. “Before my 19-year-old son left for college, I told him, ‘When you’re back, your mom will have a home.’ He said, ‘Okay, Mom,’ but I was dead serious,” but Tyrise faced two main challenges: her credit and her confidence. “Being a single mom of a 19-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter, and handling everything by myself, I wondered if I could actually own a home with the income I make.”

“The most valuable thing I learned from the program is that I can do this. Being in there amongst people that have homes or don’t have homes was so encouraging,” she recalls. “There was one moment we had with a guest speaker, Cassandra Sneed, Exit Realityrealtor. When I was expressing how scared I am, she hugged me and said, ‘It’s going to be okay. You are going to get there.’ That encouragement from others, I wouldn’t have gotten it if I weren’t in that space.”

“When we have a family like Tyrise,” Kayla says, “we already know they’re coming in with hesitation, fear that they don’t know what they’re doing or where to start. We let them know this is attainable for their family, that they don’t have to be afraid, and as they go through the various training meetings, we begin to see transformation. We see them begin to budget better, save more, improve their credit scores, get lender-ready and become more confident.”

Speaking of the spark that keeps us going, Kayla adds, “Our faith is the leading factor in this work. God provides the resources and the people, and He guides us to meet the needs of this community.”

With her face covered in smiles, Tyrise shared, “Thank you for giving your time, your efforts, your finances, because it goes a long way. You’re supporting me, but I’m able to pass it down to my 19-year-old and my 6-year-old daughter and show them how special homeownership is, and that it’s something they can do too.”

With every family that moves from fear to faith, from renter to homeowner, we are closing the gap and rebuilding the promise of generational wealth in Woodlawn and Washington Park.