"I liked the idea of controlling my own destiny and I liked the idea of selling, but it had to be selling something that I truly believed in and I believe everyone has the right to own a home," Wilson says. "
From "The Spirit of Giving," Mortgage Banking,

October 1997

Helping people get into homes

Kate Wilson, a branch manager with Summit Mortgage in Bloomington, Minnesota, entered mortgage banking because she felt strongly that everyone has the right to own a home.

"I liked the idea of controlling my own destiny and I liked the idea of selling, but it had to be selling something that I truly believed in and I believe everyone has the right to own a home," Wilson says. "I came out of college as a woman on welfare with three kids thinking, 'I am never ever going to own a home.' It was one of the most important milestones for me in my life when I was able to buy my first house."

Wilson is very active with the Hispanic community in Minneapolis, and she helped start Community Activity Set Aside (CASA), a program sponsored by the Minnesota Housing Agency that helps fund down payments for first-time homebuyers through the sale of mortgage revenue bonds. "What I kept finding with many of these potential homebuyers was that they needed help with the down payment," Wilson says. "In fact, often the amount they were paying in rent was more than what a house payment would be. I could get them into a house, but they just might need payment assistance for that first year."

Wilson began searching for a way to help first-time homebuyers and became a member of the affordable housing committee of the Minnesota Mortgage Bankers Association. The Minnesota MBA put Wilson in touch with the Minnesota Housing Agency, which helped Wilson write a grant proposal for the CASA program. "We got the money, and we've been doing it ever since," she says.

The CASA program is targeted specifically to low-income Hispanic borrowers who wish to buy a home in South Minneapolis. First, the potential borrowers go through a training seminar on buying a home.

"The typical Hispanic borrower is very low-income, is a renter, probably living with family or friends, and moved from Mexico to California a few years ago, before moving to Minneapolis," Wilson says.

"These people work so hard, and they will live in a $60,000 or $70,000 house that many people would turn their noses up at. It's a wonderful group of people who are forming a community, and they just want the dream of being a homeowner," she says.

According to Wilson, having a mortgage in a Hispanic culture is considered a negative. "If you own a home in Mexico, it's because you paid cash for it," she says. "If you have a mortgage, it's because you did something wrong, or you need money so you go to the bank and put your house up as collateral. So part of our training is getting [the potential borrowers] past that."

Wilson's homebuying seminars also include training on budgeting, maintenance of the home and "even the fact that they won't have a landlord anymore."

After the training, if the potential borrower is willing to continue, the state provides Wilson with an ongoing source of low-interest money that is used to fund up to one-half of the targeted borrower's down payment. Closing costs are paid for by the state in the form of a no-interest second mortgage.

The borrowers can also receive payment assistance, but most of the Hispanic borrowers "are very proud people and do not want the payment assistance," Wilson says.

The CASA program is "a great deal for them, but it's also a great deal for us. The Hispanic people that I work with–and it's hundreds of people now–are willing to work like crazy," Wilson says. "They have a wonderful sense of family values—they're the kind of people that make America great."

Wilson's interest in helping the Hispanic community came from her years working as a manager for eight 7-Eleven stores in South Minneapolis, which has a large Hispanic population.

"It's the inner city. South Minneapolis is mostly black, and there's a section that's an Indian reservation," she says. A growing segment of Hispanics have recently been moving into South Minneapolis, mainly from California, lured by a better job market, a low crime rate and, most important, affordable housing, she says.

A large part of Wilson's decision to become a mortgage banker stemmed from her desire to help people. "I think a lot of people get into it because they think they're going to make a million dollars," she says. "I got into it because it's what I really wanted to do—help people get into homes."

In the last year, Wilson estimates that Summit has made 55 loans through the program. From Wilson's point of view, what's important about that figure is that it means Summit helped 55 families.

Wilson began as a loan officer with Meritor Mortgage. She worked as a branch manager for Waterfield Financial for nine years until the parent company shut down her branch this past summer, then she went to work for Summit Mortgage.

Wilson's list of volunteer and pro bono work is long. While at 7-Eleven, she worked for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for 10 years. She was the top fund-raiser for the Midwest Division 7-Eleven stores' MDA campaign and for the Minneapolis 7-Eleven stores' Walk America campaign for the March of Dimes. She also was a co-sponsor of a fund-raiser for Make A Wish Minnesota, which grants the wish of a dying child.

About four years ago, Wilson, along with another mortgage lender and a Realtor, started a program called "Realtors Respond for Kids," a benefit for a local safe house for battered women and children.

Wilson is active on various committees for the Minnesota MBA, especially those concerning education and affordable housing. She teaches a class for the Minnesota MBA, emphasizing the need to reach out to first-time homebuyers.

Wilson's dedication to affordable housing has spread throughout her branch at Summit. Most of the people in my branch are very active in affordable housing—the whole branch is committed," Wilson says. She requires all of the loan officers at her branch to undergo a weeklong certification program offered by the Minnesota MBA to be affordable housing specialists. "It's a training program that goes into a lot of issues, including cultural diversity," she says.

Wilson believes the biggest challenge to affordable lending is making it cost-effective for loan officers: "People have to make a living in this business. What it boils down to, and what it keeps boiling down to when you talk to the average loan officer on the street is, 'I'd love to help, but how do I feed my family if working in [affordable housing loans] means six times the amount of work and there's no profit in it?' That's going to be a universal problem."

The key is for more individuals to devote a small amount of their time to helping others. "You have to find more people who are committed and willing to give up a little of their time," she says.