The Voice of Southwest Louisiana

SWLA business
Creative Financing
for HOME IMPROVEMENT
By Tori Hebert
W
hen Henry Mancuso started
Project Build a Future (PBAF)
in 2001 he never thought it
would still be a prosperous non-profit
organization 15 years later. Henry says,
“When I first started this, I thought we
would build a few houses and then
we could pat ourselves on the back
for a job well done”. When The Voice
of SWLA first published about PBAF
in August 2014, VOL.2, NUM.1, the
organization had built almost two
dozen homes and had no foreclosures.
The non-profit has now built well over
100 homes and still has seen zero
foreclosures. PBAF has brought a new
and creative way of financing not only
to their homes, but also to the three
community charter schools.
To begin the process of the Lease-to-
Purchase Program with PBAF, every
family is required to go through a
process of education to help them build
financially stable practices. One of the
first steps in moving toward having
their first home, is for each family to
meet with Home Buyer Counselor.
This counselor works with the family
to set a working monthly budget, and
the counselor also helps the family
understand their credit score and assist
them in creating a Credit Repair Action
Plan. This action plan helps families on
their journey to repairing their credit
score in order to financially help them
in the long run.
Once families have been able to make
improvements to their credit score
and they are close to being mortgage
ready, families are then eligible to be a
part of the Lease-to-Purchase Program.
During this time, families continue to
save money for their home with the
help of Asset Builders. Asset Builders
is a program that assist families in the
down payment they can deposit at the
bank towards purchasing their home.
For every $1 the family saves, Asset
Builders gives $4 to the family towards
Henry Mancuso at his Court of Appeals office.
their savings. This money helps each
family get closer to their goal of owning
a home, and also helps their monthly
payments stay low.
During the Lease-to-Purchase Program,
families are given more education
opportunities. This time they are
taught about home maintenance
and repair. “This is a great way to help
families understand what it takes to be
a homeowner. Whenever something
breaks or goes wrong, you don’t have
the option to call the land lord. You are
the land lord!” says Mr. Mancuso.
Through the entire home buying
Volume 4 • Number 4 WWW.THEVOICEOFSOUTHWESTLA.COM Jaunuary 2017 21