About US

The Unity Council Homeownership Center

We provide accurate, common sense, “no holds barred” financial education, counseling and coaching that creates default resistant homeowners.

Homeownership Center Background and Services
The Unity Council created the Homeownership Center in 1998 as part of the Real Estate Development Division. Initially, the program’s goal was to expand first-time homeownership opportunities for lower-income and underserved residents of Oakland and other parts of Alameda County. Over time, that vision has broadened to encompass moderate-income families in Oakland and beyond who face difficulties in purchasing and/or maintaining their first home. Today, more than 70% of the services we provide involve loss mitigation and mortgage delinquency and/or default resolution counseling, all in an effort to stem the tide of foreclosures and keep our communities strong and vibrant.

Since program inception, the Homeownership Center has served more than 5,100 people seeking assistance with the home buying and home preservation process. Services include budgeting, credit counseling, debt reduction, financial literacy, asset building, homebuyer education and access to safe, affordable loan products. We work to help our clients achieve their goal of safe, sustainable and affordable homeownership.

Since September 2006, we have provided foreclosure prevention education to more than 1900 people attending one of our foreclosure prevention workshops and one-on-one mortgage delinquency counseling to more than 700 individuals.

Foreclosure Prevention Workshops, counseling and loan modification services are free of charge.

For all Homebuyer Education Workshops and all Financial Fitness Workshops, there is a nominal materials fee of $20 per person.

All counseling clients, including those seeking help to avoid foreclosure, are required to pay $20/per person for their credit report, a tri-merge report with credit scores, a copy of which is then provided to the client and used in their individual counseling sessions. Since we only pull credit for counseling purposes, our Credit Report service is considered a “soft pull” and does not impact an individual’s credit scores even though it will show up as an “inquiry.”

Our services include:

Homebuyer Education Workshops: Free comprehensive homebuyer education courses are now offered twice per month throughout the year in Oakland, and six times/year in Fairfield. It is an 8-hour HUD-approved homebuyer education class, and participants may receive unlimited one-on-one follow up counseling. One-on-one counseling sessions are custom designed to meet the specific financial goals of each client. 

Financial Fitness & Literacy Courses: We now offer three different Financial Fitness courses: “The Basics Course”, “The Advanced Course: All about Investing”, and “Quicken®”.

  1. The Basics runs for five consecutive weeks, with classes meeting for 2.5 hours per week. Topics include budgeting & goal setting, financial management, savings, investing, credit repair, responsible use of credit, an inside look at the credit industry, debt reduction, taxes, insurance and lending.
  2. The Advanced Course: All About Investing, is based on Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad Educational Series and began in April 2009.  The Advanced Course: All About Investing is a 25 hour, 6 week course that meets 3 hours per week, and one full day on Saturday. In this course, students continue to develop their financial literacy by applying a variety of investing principles & strategies through game play, using Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow 101 board game and a Virtual Stock Exchange E-game. 
  3. Finally, we also offer a five-hour Quicken®  computer-based class in which clients can apply their newly-learned budgeting and financial management skills using Quicken® software.

Post-Purchase Educational Workshops:  Designed for new homeowners, this 2.5 hour course further demonstrates how to manage your new home to build a better financial future for you and your family. It covers the importance of community involvement, budgeting for successful homeownership, and planning for repairs, maintenance and improvements to your home.

Foreclosure Prevention Workshops: While this topic is covered in every Homebuyer Education and Financial Fitness & Literacy workshop, we offer bi-monthly seminars for homeowners who seek assistance to avoid mortgage delinquency and/or foreclosure. Topics include: overview of the modern mortgage industry,  the loss mitigation process & various options available, most common loan modification programs including HAMP, dealing with mortgage problems, avoiding foreclosure, creating a crisis budget,  working with your lender, refinance options, “short sales”, “short refis”, the foreclosure timeline, tax consequences and bankruptcy.

Unity Council Individual Development Accounts (IDA): For clients who have successfully completed the Financial Fitness & Literacy Course and meet certain minimum savings requirements, the Unity Council provides a 2:1 matching grant of up to $4,000 towards the purchase of a home. Members have five years from the date of first deposit to close escrow on their home to receive the matching funds. Members must also be pro-actively engaged in fulfilling their budgeting goals, debt reduction, savings plan, and credit repair plan where applicable