UNA, Springfield schools help teachers buy homes

SBJ Staff

Posted online February 18, 2007 | 11:00 pm

The Springfield R-XII School District, in conjunction with Urban Neighborhoods Alliance and Freddie Mac, is offering its teachers incentives in exchange for them buying homes near the schools where they work.

The Teacher on the Block program – a version of Freddie Mac’s Workforce Home Benefit initiative – will provide services to teachers who work at center-city Title 1 schools.

If homeownership near schools increases, the schools improve, according to UNA Executive Director Bob Horton.

“What we do today in these revitalization efforts can shape the future of our children and the places they live,” he said in a news release.

Services available to teachers will include home-buyer education, prequalification assistance, financial and debt-management counseling, flexible mortgage products, post-purchase counseling and delinquency intervention assistance.

Empire Bank and Great Southern Bank also are participating as referral partners to help teachers access mortgage products and services that meet their needs.

This story originally appeared in SBJ’s Feb. 13 free e-news Daily Update. Click here to register.[[In-content Ad]]