Housing and Education Alliance, (HEA) is a 501 (c) 3 HUD Certified Housing Counseling Agency that was founded in 2002 to provide culturally sensitive bilingual housing counseling services to our community. As an affiliate of UnidosUS (formerly NCLR) and a member of their Undios Wealth and Homeownership Alliance (UWHA), HEA is able to bring additional resources to help the residents of the communities we serve. HEA celebrates and embraces the gift and richness of diversity.
Today, HEA provides complete housing services to residents throughout Central Florida who want to purchase a home or who are seeking foreclosure prevention services. The Board and staff of HEA have over 200 years of combined experience in the fields of real estate, mortgages, counseling, economic development, and business.
HEA is committed to working together each doing our part for the good of the organization and the community. We embrace innovation and entrepreneurship in finding solutions for our client’s issues. We collaborate with residents, businesses, nonprofits, and government partners in the development and revitalization of neighborhoods and communities.
Housing & Education Alliance actively participates and partners with other nonprofit agencies and businesses to bring our services to the local community and workplace. Our outreach efforts include appearing on local radio shows, public service announcements, media releases, and workshops. HEA has participated in workshops organized by elected Congressional leaders and various local community centers. These workshops are presented throughout Florida. We have a strong commitment to serving low and moderate-income minority individuals and families.
HEA has been recognized and received the following awards:
- Tampa Housing Authority’s Housing Heroes Award
- Catholic Charities-Outstanding Community Services Award
- Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Non-Profit of the Year Award
- NeighborWorks America-2006 Innovations in Homeownership Contest for our “My Home America Housing Expo”
- WEDU’s – Be More Unstoppable Non-Profit of the Year Award in 2011
- Finalist for the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Non-Profit of the Year Award for 2011
- Tampa Latin Chamber – Non-Profit of the Year 2011 Award
- Tampa Latin Chamber – Non-Profit of the Year 2012 Award
- Florida Home Partnership awarded Walter Walker, HEA’s Director of Education the 2012 Dorothy Duke Outstanding Community Service Award
- Sylvia Alvarez, Executive Director – Tampa Bay Lightning Community Hero Award -2013
- Sylvia Alvarez participated in the 2013 Tampa Bay’s Dancing with The Stars event hosted by Hands Across the Bay and was named a runner up
- Sylvia Alvarez was named a finalist as the 2013 Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Businesswoman of the Year
- Sylvia Alvarez – Appointed to serve a three-year term on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Advisory Board. – March 2015
- UnidosUS (formerly NCLR) Homeownership Network recognized HEA for its outstanding achievements in the field of Housing Counseling-July 2014
- HEA received an award in July 2015 from NCLR for the Home Again Rehab Program.
- Sylvia Alvarez appointed to JP Morgan Chase Consumer Advisory Board – 2015
- Sylvia Alvarez winner of the Down Payment Resource’s 2023 Beverly Faull Affordable Housing Leadership Award
- Awarded UnidosUS Southeast Regional Affiliate of the Year Award 2024
The staff also contributes to the private industry sector by participating in workshops or speaking at industry events. Sylvia Alvarez, HEA’s Executive Director was the keynote speaker at Fannie Mae’s Women’s History Conference in Washington, D.C. in 2014. Together Sylvia Alvarez and Walter Walker, HEA’s Director of Education co-authored a book entitled “The American Nightmare – Strategies for Preventing, Surviving and Overcoming Foreclosure.” The book was endorsed by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and funded in part by Freddie Mac. The book was translated into Spanish and was used by housing counselors and families facing foreclosure. The book was released at the start of the foreclosure crisis when very little information was available to help the consumer understand the foreclosure process. Also, to help them understand their options and the consequences of their choices. The book was well received, and Sylvia and Walter were the featured guests at NeighborWorks Authors Luncheon in Atlanta in 2011 as well as guests or featured in several local and national media including Bloomberg Radio, Ebony Magazine, BankRate.com, Time Magazine Online, PBS Radio and TV, Wall Street Journal and Yahoo News.
Education & One-on-One Counseling:
Since its inception in 2002, HEA has delivered over 502,000 hours of education and one-on-one counseling to over 53,887 families and/or
individuals on the subject of financial literacy, home retention, and the home buying process. Out of those served over 11,348 families purchased their first home and HEA was responsible for over $148,000,000 in down payment assistance grants. During the economic downturn and housing crisis, HEA helped 14,000 families from Tampa Bay and beyond avoid foreclosure with the free foreclosure prevention programs they provided.
Students learn how to improve their budget and credit profiles, shop for and secure a mortgage loan and maintain their home and finances after the purchase. The goal of this class is to provide participants with the tools for household financial management and budgeting to enable them to make informed decisions in the home purchasing process. Some of the topics covered include: Understanding Credit and Reading a Credit Report, Repairing Credit, Choosing and Working with a Lender and the Mortgage Process, Understanding Mortgage Terms and Conditions, Choosing a Realtor and Selecting the Right Home for You, Closing Documents and what to expect at Closing.
Sylvia Alvarez winner of the Down Payment Resource’s 2023 Beverly Faull Affordable Housing Leadership Award.
See what some of our students are saying about our class:
HomeTRACK Online – HomeTRACK en Español:
To further the accessibility to quality homebuyer education, HEA created HomeTRACK Online. HomeTRACK is a HUD-certified homebuyer education course that is available 24/7 in the comfort of the client’s own home or environment of their choosing. HomeTRACK is like no other online or in-person homebuyer education class because it does not use power points, and speakers to deliver the HUD-required topics. We use EDU-tainment to develop the online course using games, exercises, cartoons, and very funny videos.
The online student is more engaged and learns these valuable lessons with higher retention levels. The US Department of Education, Purdue University, and other research and studies have proven that when you pepper technical and complicated information with humor, retention levels go way up. You can see a demo video of HomeTRACK Online here.
Foreclosure Prevention:
The Housing & Education Alliance was the local partner at several foreclosure workshops presented in partnership with HOPE NOW, NeighborWorks, Alliance for Stabilizing our Communities, National Council of La Raza, HUD, US Treasury, National Urban League, National CAPCD, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
The events provided more than 10,000 homeowners an opportunity to meet face-to-face with their mortgage lenders and local housing counselors from HUD-approved organizations in order to find solutions to their mortgage issues.
Financial Literacy:
This program will educate young adults ages 17-21 as well as adults on financial matters, banking, goal setting, budgeting, and understanding credit. The project will engage the participants with fun and age-appropriate classroom exercises as well as online financial games that will help them develop good behaviors and life skills. These positive behaviors will give them a higher probability of financially successful adulthood. The participants will identify goals and rewards for attaining the goals. There will be a component to engage participants in competition with the video games and with rewards for the highest scores proving to them that being “financially fit” can be fun as well as rewarding.
The program will demonstrate the benefits of being “Financially Fit”. Participants will understand the financial benefit of saving for a goal instead of using credit which can be costly. Participants will understand how to prepare for credit, and how to practice good credit behaviors by developing trust through responsible actions. The project will help participants develop smart spending habits and responsible credit card use. Participants will be inspired by the rewards of saving, investing wisely, and building wealth as well as given warning signs of predatory practices and how to avoid them.
