Secretary Jay Ashe Announces Way Finders First-Time Homeowner, Foreclosure Ed Grants

Springfield— Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash recently joined Way Finders President and CEO Peter Gagliardi to announce homeownership counseling and foreclosure prevention education grants of nearly $179,000 for Way Finders, part of the Baker-Polito administration’s Chapter 206 grants totaling $1.5 million to fund foreclosure education and first-time homebuyer counseling throughout the Commonwealth.

The Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks Terence A. McGinnis, and John Chapman, Undersecretary for the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, joined with other local and business leaders for the grant announcement. 

In 2017, Way Finders invested over $19 million for first-time homebuyer and foreclosure education. The organization graduated 571 first-time homebuyers through online and in-person classes and graduated 243 individuals from its Financial Education Program; provided pre-purchase counseling to 378 prospective homebuyers; and assisted 121 first-time homebuyer graduates in purchasing homes in the region. Way Finders also assisted 105 households facing foreclosure in 2017.

From the $1.5 million in Chapter 206 grants, twenty-one awards were made to ten consumer counseling organizations and eleven foreclosure prevention regional centers across the Commonwealth. This is the tenth consecutive year the Division has awarded financial education programming to support Massachusetts residents pursuing homeownership opportunities as well as those families working to stay in their homes.