Financial Literacy is Critical to Emergency Preparedness

Marshall Heights Community Development Organization Inc. (MHCDO) is a HUD-approved housing counseling agency. MHCDO has a rich history of serving the residents of the District of Columbia, particularly Ward 7.

Babatunde Oloyede, President and CEO, is pleased to showcase housing counseling services supporting generational wealth. Financial Literacy is a critical component of our services. We can meet you where you are: beginner, intermediate, or advanced levels.

HUD recently approved MHCDO to add Emergency Preparedness to its services. MHCDO celebrated National Preparedness Month by launching our inaugural “The Readiness Conference.” The conference, held on September 13, 2024, highlighted all emergency preparedness entities and roles.

MHCDO is responsible for the critical area of “Financial Preparedness.” Financial preparedness, an essential dimension of disaster preparedness, contributes to effective responses to disasters and recovery. It is also critical for reducing the risks of economic hardship and falling into poverty linked with disaster.

The Readiness Conference was a pivotal event designed to equip residents of the District of Columbia with critical information and resources to prepare for climate-related emergencies effectively.

Expert Speakers included the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the D.C. Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), Fire/Emergency Management Services, and others.

The goal was to empower residents with knowledge and tools to safeguard themselves, their families, and their communities against unexpected emergencies and severe weather.

MHCDO launched the conference in Ward 7 as it is reported that vulnerable communities were less prepared for disaster; those vulnerable communities typically were characterized by higher residential mobility, people living alone, single- parent households, households living under the poverty line, public housing, higher income inequality, and lower rates of homeownership.

One of MHCDO’s core values is to “Support Ward 7 First.” MHCDO believes deeply in and makes every effort to live, work, hire from, and recreate in Ward 7 first, the District of Columbia second, and the Washington, DC region third.

In the past few years, many American households have been affected by some of the costliest disasters of our generation.

The impact can be catastrophic if the clients we serve in our community are not financially prepared for a disaster.

Strategies to promote emergency savings should include help from financial educators and counselors at MHCDO to create a more significant financial capacity. Multiple studies and media stories have highlighted the lack of preparedness of most households to cope with financial emergencies such as costly car repairs or loss of income from work.

A lack of money for emergencies is problematic because financial shocks will happen. The coronavirus pandemic threatened the livelihoods of many workers who lacked paid leave and/or could not work from home, throwing the need for emergency funds into focus.

Difficulty coping with financial shocks puts households at risk for hardship and more harmful outcomes—difficulty meeting basic needs such as housing and food – following financial shocks like job loss.

MHCDO offers a comprehensive set of workshops and one-on-one counseling. Workshops include:

• Savings Plan: Involve high-yield accounts to grow your emergency fund faster.
• Credit Scoring: Your score is a crucial factor in financial success. It determines how much you will pay for basic quality-of-life concerns like housing, credit cards, and insurance.
• Estate Planning: Protect and provide for your family; it is a vehicle to transfer generational wealth.
• Cloud-based Financial Record Keeping: Climate change conditions require placing our essential documents in the cloud. Too often, disaster victims are left without documents critical to securing housing and other assistance after a disaster.
• Borrowing Essentials: Helps you to make informed decisions when borrowing. One wrong decision can impact your life for years.
• Predatory Lending: Learn warning signs of a predatory and the attributes of a suitable lender.

The Survey of Consumer Finances showed that only about half of households had adequate emergency savings. The National Household Survey (NHS) reported that only 67% of American households set aside some money for an emergency, and half had no more than $500.

Another study found that having no money to pay for gas, hotels, food, or rental cars presented substantial barriers to residents’ evacuation during Hurricane Katrina.

Other counseling services available at MHCDO are the Home Equity Conversions Mortgage (HECM) as a way to inform homeowners about the pros and cons of the reverse mortgage, Foreclosure Prevention to build strategies to prevent default or delinquency, Emergency Preparedness counseling to shore up homeowners and residents financially before a disaster as well as assist residents in developing an emergency plan. These programs expand MHCDO’s influence beyond Ward 7, the District of Columbia, and into neighboring States.