Future homeowners come to Catholic Charities Housing Fair

Sergio and Gloria Canales want to buy their first home after renting for eight years. They have a three-year-old girl and want a yard.

Dayna Worchel for South Texas Catholic
 

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Abel Garcia and Juanita Villarreal have been renting an apartment for years now, but they would love to purchase their first home. 

“An apartment is never really yours. We also want more privacy. We are lost about what we need to do and we need to get some information about getting into a home,” Garcia said.  

They were among the many like-minded families who came to the Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi’s third annual “Dare to Own the Dream and Housing Fair” on April 14 at the Catholic Charities office on Oliver Court. 

The primary goal of the fair is to educate future and existing homeowners and to help eliminate predatory lending, says Doreya “Yiyi” Dean, who serves as Grant Writer/Administrator and Director of Housing Counseling for Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi. The organization has been offering Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved housing counseling since 2002 to provide education and to promote home ownership. 

 “We lack affordable housing here. Apartments are sometimes more expensive than houses. All of us work together including the banks, mortgage companies, and the City of Corpus Christi’s housing programs to bring awareness to the community,” Dean says.   

The Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi organization receives grants through Catholic Charities USA to offer many types of HUD-approved counseling services and education programs for first-time home-buyers. These services include one-on-one housing counseling; pre and post-purchase counseling; credit repair; financial literacy, and a host of other services. The training and counseling are available in English and Spanish.   

“Every year, Bishop Mulvey writes a letter to Catholic Charities USA and to HUD to support our efforts,” Dean said. 

Other families there talked about the advantages of homeownership. David and Melissa Martinez also say they want to have property they can call their own. They have been renting and have two small children. 

“We live in Robstown, but want to move to Corpus Christi because we both work in the North Beach area and we have a very long commute,” says Melissa Martinez. 

Mark and Michelle Brown are raising a growing family in a 600 square foot apartment and really want to purchase a home. 

“It’s time for an upgrade,” Mark Brown said with a laugh. 

Mike McLellan, Interim Executive Director of Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi, says home ownership is one of the foundational pieces of life and is a source of pride in a community. 

“Events like these provide opportunities to buy a home and to have realtors, the federal government and Texas Windstorm Insurance Association all in one place where no one is pressuring them,” he says of the event. 

Home ownership helps create jobs throughout the community in the home building and construction industries also, McLellan says.  

Representatives from the banks and mortgage companies at the housing fair also wanted to help the community achieve home ownership. Monique Espinosa is a mortgage loan officer from American Bank. 

“We want to educate people in the process and we make sure the program suits their needs,” she says.

Sometimes the loan process is quick and takes only a couple of months. The credit-to-income ratio must be right and the bank can look at the customer’s credit report with the customer, Espinosa says. 

“The longest amount of time was when it took someone three years to qualify. It took that long to make sure their credit and income was right,” she says.   

But they still became homeowners in the end.   

For more information about the HUD Approved Housing Counseling Program, contact Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi, Inc., 615 Oliver Ct., Corpus Christi, TX 78408. Phone: (361) 884-0651, or go to catholiccharities-cc.org.