Taylor Fields had serious obstacles between her and her dream of home ownership, but she didn’t back down. “My first time applying for a Dream$avers matched savings account, back in 2014, I got turned down. That was very discouraging, not getting in. I went home and cried. But that motivated me to fix what I needed to fix to be accepted into the program. It took me one year to get in.”
The Dream$avers program offers a match on a person’s saved earned income that can be used on a first-time home purchase, post-secondary education, small business, or home repair. While they save, they attend trainings and receive on-on-one coaching. The program offers a hand up to hard working adults like Taylor.
Once she got in, she made the most of it. Referring to coaching, she said, “It was really helpful, focusing on me and my issues. I really liked that part.” She attained her goal of home ownership in August. “I don’t know if I could have achieved this goal of homeownership without lacasa. This program really helped me out.”
Dream$avers is part of lacasa’s Financial Empowerment Center that serves more than 500 people with financial goals per year. The strategic plan outlines initiatives to significantly increase the impact through innovative partnerships with employers that offer access to low-cost emergency loans and facilitate participation in our services. We project that 30,000 workers will have access to these opportunities by 2021.
