How Philadelphia organizations and affordable housing are bridging the homeownership gap for Latinos
Although Latinos are underrepresented in homeownership, some organizations are working to help address that gap
By Jensen Toussaint. March 14, 2025.
Image Credits: Canva | @wutzkoh
Philadelphia’s housing market looks very different today than it did since the turn of the millennium.
The Pew Charitable Trusts credit several factors to this transformation. This includes the city’s gradual population growth after decades of decline, a property tax abatement in 2000 that spurred new real estate investment, the market contraction after the 2008 national housing crash, and years of low interest rates that attracted new homebuyers.
Will Gonzalez, executive director of Ceiba. Image Credtis: Inti Media
Data shows that although home prices have increased in every Philadelphia neighborhood over this time, household incomes have not kept pace. As a result of this dynamic, the share of Philly households that could afford an entry-level home dropped from 70% in 2000 to 58% in 2021, according to Pew.
“Homeownership is an ideal wealth-building tool, but it’s also not available to everyone,” said Will Gonzalez, executive director of Ceiba, during an interview with Inti Media.
Low incomes are a key reason for this — a reality that impacts the entire nation.
According to a study released by Visual Capitalist, the median house price is nearly six times the median household income in the United States.
Another recent study from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that the United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness in 2024. A lack of affordable housing is one of the factors that have driven this increase.
For this reason, the availability of affordable housing is critical.
Organizations working to increase Latino homeownership
Gonzalez noted that Philadelphia has over 70 organizations that offer some form of free housing counseling services.
Ceiba works with a number of them, one of which is Congreso de Latinos Unidos, one of the city’s most prominent Latino-serving organizations.
Founded in 1977, its mission is to enable individuals and families in predominantly Latino neighborhoods to achieve economic self-sufficiency and well-being. Congreso provides programming and social services in five key areas: education, workforce development, housing, health, and parenting.
Hildaliz Escalante-Nimchuk, vice president of housing and financial stability at Congreso. Image Credits: Jprod
Its housing program is robust, including housing counseling, financial literacy, and a first-time homebuyer workshop. The housing counseling and financial literacy program helps individuals determine their affordability and sustainability through counseling services.
“The financial literacy component really addresses credit building, credit repair, banking, helping individuals who are unbanked [become] banked, looking at their financials and understanding what exactly they can actually afford,” said Hildaliz Escalante-Nimchuk, vice president of housing and financial stability at Congreso, during an interview with Inti Media.
Congreso’s financial capability coaches look at potential homebuyers’ net worth rather than their gross income to help them determine what they can afford.
The first-time homebuyer workshop helps provide clients with foundational knowledge as they begin the home purchase process, including comprehensive information about mortgage lending, credit and budgeting, real estate, home inspections, and available sources to help with down payment and closing costs.
“On our pre-purchase, there is also a foreclosure component as part of our education and our one-on-one counseling to help them understand these are things that can happen if you buy a home that you can’t afford,” Escalante-Nimchuk added.
Upon purchasing a home, Congreso stays in contact with its clients to ensure that buyers understand the importance of making on-time mortgage payments, having a post-purchase budget for potential new expenses, and enrolling them in any public benefit programs they might be eligible for.
In fiscal year 2024, Congreso helped 103 clients purchase their first home.
A valuable tool, but barriers persist
The prospect of homeownership can lead to economic mobility, wealth building, financial security, better health, and much more.
However, for low-income individuals, the road to homeownership is tough.
“If you’re trying to get somebody who’s earning $20,000-$30,000 into a homeownership situation, it’s not as productive for wealth building because you’re already subsidizing the homeownership unit,” Gonzalez said.
Further, it becomes more difficult to weather the storm of any unexpected situations, such as home repairs or potential job loss.
“But if you end up in an affordable rental unit and you’re given workforce development tools to increase your salary, to increase your education, to increase your capability to earn a higher income, now homeownership becomes more feasible,” Gonzalez said.
A household is considered cost-burdened if it spends more than 30% of its income on rent and utilities. A household that spends more than 50% of its income on these expenses is considered severely cost-burdened.
According to LEDC Philadelphia, Hispanic households are the most cost-burdened of any other demographic group at about 50% in 2019.
This is why Gonzalez stresses the importance of social services and affordability to help move the needle.
“It’s not just about housing, it’s also about workforce development and your ability to earn more money,” he said.
For two and a half years, Congreso has tested a model that intertwines its housing and workforce development programs — two of its five pillars.
“We’re very dedicated to this particular model and so we’re going to continue to fund it and ensure that any individual that’s coming through [our housing program] that lacks some kind of employment, that they’re being connected to our employment specialist,” Escalante-Nimchuk said.
For those in which stable housing is their biggest barrier toward homeownership, Congreso is one of about 13 providers that offer rapid rehousing services throughout the city.
The goal of Congreso’s rapid rehousing services is to enable households to move into permanent housing by identifying housing options or working with existing subsidized housing providers and providing the household with the financial assistance and housing stabilization services needed to prevent a return to homelessness.
The organization works from a housing-first model.
“That means that it doesn’t matter whether they have income or what kind of barriers they’re facing, our goal is to get them housed within 45 to 60 days,” said Escalante-Nimchuk, “And then provide them a rental subsidy of up to [at least] 12 months.”
After the client has been housed, Congreso’s goal is to help them remove the barriers they face to sustain their housing unit.
“The subsidy really helps a lot of individuals get back on their feet and get them integrated back into the community and helping them kind of relearn what it looks like being able to pay your own bills,” Escalante-Nimchuk added.
Beyond low income, Gonzalez and Escalante-Nimchuk highlighted several other barriers to homeownership, including redlining, language barriers, lack of housing education, and the digital divide.
The Parker Administration’s progress
Upon being elected as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor, Cherelle Parker noted housing as one of the several challenges she wanted to address.
Her campaign included a goal to “increase access to housing for both renters and homeowners to ensure vibrant and equitable communities and help build intergenerational wealth.”
According to the Parker Administration Year One Report, in fiscal year 2024, 328 affordable housing units in large developments were created and preserved throughout the city and 511 home repair loans totaling $15.6 million were issued. The city also saw 460 Turn the Key homes get completed or begin construction.
Launched in 2022, Turn the Key is an initiative launched to build more than 1,000 affordable homes throughout the city on publicly-owned city land.
Furthermore, in the last year, 6,996 home repairs for low-income residents were completed, and $34 million was invested in assistance to support tenants in need.
Philadelphia’s 2025 housing market and outlook for Latino homeowners
In December, economists at the multiple listing service Bright MLS released its “2025 Mid-Atlantic Housing Market Outlook.”
Cautiously optimistic, Bright MLS predicts that Philadelphia’s 2025 housing market will likely see more homes on the market, more home sales, and higher home prices.
Philadelphia is one of three metro areas where the median sales price is expected to increase by more than 4% in 2025.
Despite the still-relevant challenges, Latinos have still managed to move the needle in homeownership nationwide.
According to Jung Hyun Choi, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute, the homeownership rate for Hispanics increased more than any other demographic group in the U.S. between 2019 and 2022.
Trends are expected to continue moving upward — a study by the Urban Institute projects that 70% of net new homeowners in the U.S. between 2020 and 2040 will be Hispanic.
It will take collaboration by both advocacy groups and the city to help narrow the homeownership gap and guide more people toward owning homes.
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