Innovative Home Maintenance Lab Gives New Homeowners Hands-On Training in Tiling, Plumbing, Electric Repair and Other Skills

July 25, 2006 – A NeighborWorks® organization serving a rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population in Kansas City, Kansas, recently expanded in order to accommodate the community’s increased need for homeownership counseling and education. El Centro, Inc., celebrated the opening of a NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center® on June 29. The center will provide one-stop homeownership services for low- and very low-income families.

“We’ve seen a real increase in the number of people buying houses because of lower interest rates and more flexible lending guidelines—and they need homeownership

NeighborWorks America presented a $70,000 check to El Centro at opening ceremony for its HomeOwnership Center. From left to right: Richard Ruiz, executive director of El Centro, Inc., and Eileen Fitzgerald, Milton Sharp, Jr., John Santner, and Leon Gray, all of NeighborWorks America.

counseling and education to make sure that they get the best loan possible for them and so they are not set up to fail as homeowners,” said Jeff Fendorf, El Centro, Inc.’s vice-president of operations and community development.

El Centro, Inc.’s HomeOwnership Center offers homeownership education, counseling, and lending services, as well as a home maintenance lab that provides hands-on opportunities to learn skills such as plumbing, tiling, and electrical repairs.  These services, previously offered in various locations around Kansas City, are now available in one place. In addition to providing education and counseling services in Spanish, El Centro began last year offering homebuyer education classes in English.

NeighborWorks America, a Congressionally-funded organization that provides training, grants, and technical support to a national network of community development organizations (including El Centro), presented a $70,000 check to El Centro at the June 29 opening ceremony of the HomeOwnership Center.

New Homeowners Beat the Odds

According to Fendorf, close to 90 percent of El Centro’s clients are considered low-income by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards. As well as serving hundreds of prospective homeowners from the Kansas City metropolitan area, El Centro also educates and counsels families from across Kansas and Missouri. The area attracts a large number of recent Latin American immigrants. According to Fendorf, some areas of Kansas City had an increase of more than 100 percent in the number of new Spanish-speaking immigrants between 1990 and 2000.

Despite the financial challenges they face, these low-income families demonstrate a strong commitment to becoming homeowners. In the first six months of 2006, 144 El Centro clients attended homebuyer education classes. During that same period, 58 clients have closed on the purchase of a house.

Since beginning its homebuyer education program less than ten years ago, El Centro’s program has grown from producing one or two closings a month to an average of ten or more. In 2004 and 2005, more than 450 prospective homeowners completed El Centro’s homebuyer education and received counseling. During that same period more than 200 families closed on the purchase of a home with help from El Centro. These homebuyers brought investment in excess of $10 million back into the community

In addition to homebuyer education and counseling, El Centro provides home maintenance classes twice a month.  Its state-of-the art home maintenance lab provides work stations so that clients can learn hands-on how to install and repair tiling, plumbing, electrical systems, doors, windows and sheetrock.

Class instruction is provided by experienced contractors and volunteers. The lab, opened in 2002, attracts a wide range of clients. In fact, an 80-year-old nun recently attended a class so she could learn to do basic plumbing at her convent. “Some want to do the repairs themselves,” said Fendorf. “Others want to know what they need to keep an eye on in their homes.”

El Centro’s HomeOwnership Center  is located at El Centro’s headquarters at 650 Minnesota Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas. For more information, visit www.elcentroinc.com or at (913) 677-0100.