Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 7 June 2001 — Page 5

The Muncie Times, June 7, 2001, page 5

are identified within eligibility guidelines, as well as overseeing vocational and educational assessments, and being a support to enhance the living conditions for all those who seek services. One such program assists migrant families in enrolling their children in Head Start programs. The ROI mission is to help farm workers and other disenfranchised people to break though the social, political, educational and economic barriers that have historically barred such individuals and families from access to services that can enhance their quality of life. “We do a lot of paperwork and a lot of hand holding . . . the people sometimes have nowhere else to turn,” Phillips said. ROI has 43 year- round and seasonal offices across Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico. The focus is on farming, other low- income families and economically depressed communities in general. The administrative office is in Rochester, N.Y. Some people equate ROI service with an Federal Housing Administration loan program, but there are some major differences according to Phillips. It is the only office of its kind in the state. “I’m responsible for home ownership counseling, the education programs, as well as financial assistance for first time home buyers,” she said. “FHA is a government program that insures loans. They have more to do with the lenders who originate the loan. . . If you go to a lender and you’re not ready to buy a home, they don’t spend time counseling. But we do. . . we provide technical assistance to first- time home buyers.”

This is a lot like what she used to do at the Muncie Home Ownership and Development Center. Allan Bramiett, director of the Muncie Home Ownership and Development Center enjoyed working with Phillips during her 7 years as housing counselor with their agency. And Bramiett couldn’t help but shower accolades upon Phillips. “Her personality, her perseverance in getting a job done, and working and counseling with the people that she did was just outstanding,” Bramiett said. “I hated to lose her because she was a gem. You could not ask for a better person to work with than Annette.” ROI used to have an office in Indianapolis. But the former ROI office in Indianapolis is concentrating on other areas of home ownership, outside the rural sector. There’s really no cookie-cutter description of Phillips, clients. Each day can be as different as the demographics of the families who come through her doors. “They want to know what resources are available to them. Most of them are low- to moderate-income families. We work with a lot of single parent families and even some first generation home buyers,” said Phillips. “We’re seeing a lot of that.” First generation buyers are people whose parents never had the opportunity to own a home. With any kind of assistance comes the confidential interview. “We ask them about credit issues, because credit is the No. 1 barrier to home ownership. I would guess it could be as high as 70 percent of the people who come to us have some credit issues that need to be cleared up. We can provide debt counseling to some degree.”

“You don’t have to have good credit to come in and talk to us. If you had good credit you probably wouldn’t need our help. But if you don’t have good credit, we can identify those problems and explain to you how that’s going to affect your ability to get a mortgage and work with you on trying to clean your record up,” she said. “That can mean we help you contact the creditor, make payment arrangements, teach people that it’s important to keep receipts, how to obtain a zero balance.” Phillips said most creditors report on a monthly basis. She said that sometimes it takes a while to show a zero balance on a credit report, but once a debt has been paid off, a credit report should possibly reflect a zero balance in 30 to 60 days. “However, most people have a lot more substantial debts like medical bills. We see a lot of that. Medical expenses just devastate people, especially when it comes to buying a home,’’she said. Phillip’s position at ROI not only involves just trying to find out about a family’s budget and how much they can afford for a monthly payment on a home. Sometimes she hears stories that can tug at one’s heart strings. There was one woman who applied for a loan. It took 2 hours to sit with her and go through all the things that were troubling her. By the time they got to the third account she started crying. She was overwhelmed because she just didn’t see any way out. The worst things Phillips says she has to deal with are animal odors and slow-moving farm equipment during her commute. Since her office works with funding sources, such as Indiana Housing Finance Authority she has to be up on the latest trends. To impart that

knowledge to the Hispanic population, Phillips has a bilingual counselor on staff. “The Latino population is growing, as you know, especially in rural areas when we’re working with farm workers.” Phillips said, “It’s a lot more sophisticated than what I was doing before, especially when dealing with the funding sources.” “My job is an interesting, weird kind of mix. It’s human service. It’s banking and finance. But it’s nice because you don’t get too bored. It requires a lot of daily flexibility and change,” she said. She also has to deal with politicians on the state and local level, selling the validity of the need for the kinds of services her office offers. “For instance, in the course of one day I can have a meeting with a banker, then go to talk with a client who understands nothing about the home buying process.” Phillips said. “There’s a big difference between working with a vice president of a bank to convince him to provide financing for customers, then turn around and have to constantly market our [outreach] programs to customers or real estate agents or community agencies who are not aware of what we do.” Mixing business with compassion helped Phillips get hired. That compassion can be attributed to her father, the late Ulis G. Bell, and her mother, Betty Bell. Her husband, Gary, works for Ontario Systems. When she’s not in the office or with the family, Phillips is busy in a number of community activities, including Indiana Black Expo and leading the third grade Brownie Girl Scouts troop at Burris, where her daughters, Alise and Arin, attend. She is a member of the Muncie Bethel A.M.E. Church.

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