March 22, 2024 | by Anna Orendain
Categories: Housing Counseling, Spotlight
We periodically spotlight a staff member or partner to help our readers get to know our mission and industry a little better.
This week we interviewed Gabriela Luna, Director of Affordable Housing and Community Development at Tejano Center for Community Concerns (Tejano Center), a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas that offers programs and services to improve lives and create a sustained network of support and opportunity within their community. Gabriela has used TSAHC's programs - including Housing Connection training - to enhance her work and amplify the impact that Tejano Center makes in its community.
Below is our video interview with Gabriela.
Here are a few excerpts from our video interview. To hear all of the great work that Gabriela and Tejano Center are doing, view the video above!
What types of counseling services does Tejano Center for Community Concerns provide?
Tejano Center provides pre-purchase counseling, home buyer education, post-purchase counseling (which is for homeowners as they become adjusted to their new status in homeownership). We also offer foreclosure prevention, housing counseling, disaster recovery, home repair, and anything that is related to homeownership with the exception of rental housing.
We’ve been working alongside your organization through the Harris County Homeownership Collaborative. Can you expand on what that is and what your organization is doing as part of that collaborative?
The Collaborative, Tejano Center is part of that. We're tasked with finding innovative construction typologies, identifying different ways to build and develop housing where it's more resilient, and to bridge the gap in affordability. So, we're finding ways to build more affordably.
You got to know TSAHC through our Housing Connection training for counselors and we appreciate your work as a counselor. Tell us about your experience going through that training so far and what people attending should expect.
Well, first of all, thank you so much for the opportunity and for having us here. Training can be a burden on nonprofit agencies: the cost, the lodging, and having to be away from the office. But with the opportunity that TSAHC has brought us, we're able to drive more distance away, the lodging is at no cost to the agency, and the training is something we're very grateful -- we needed the updates in credit counseling. I myself came here today. I've been doing this work for seventeen years, but I feel like I've benefitted a lot from the class so far. And I also brought with me another staff member who's aspiring to become a housing counselor, so everything is new to her. Thank you very much!
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