Financial literacy efforts target homeownership disparities in Calhoun County

Editor’s note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave’s On the Ground Calhoun County series. All photos are courtesy.

Unlocking the door to home ownership for Black and Brown people living in underserved communities in Battle Creek and Calhoun County is lacking a key element — knowledge that has not been passed down to them, says Michael Patton, MNA, President and CEO of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League (SWMUL).

In early January, he announced a new initiative led by the SWMUL called “Rebuilding Hope,

Restoring Opportunities,” which is “a community-centered, Financial Literacy Initiative rooted in

trust, lived experience, and strong local partnerships,” according to a press release from SWMUL and the Battle Creek Community Foundation (BCCF).

Designed and led by the Urban League, the initiative is expected to engage annually with 600 individuals: 300 adults and 300 youth ages 12-18. Patton says he anticipates that the majority of these individuals will be People of Color (POC) “who have historically faced barriers to financial security,” according to the press release. 

“In most underserved communities across the country, you find that financial literacy is something that is lacking there,” Patton says. “We also seem to be behind the eight ball in terms of home ownership. When it comes to knowledge about areas like debt reduction, budgeting, credit building, and investing, these are areas that black and brown communities are challenged around, and they don’t have the information to be successful at building wealth.”

That said, the program has been created to serve underserved families throughout Battle Creek and Calhoun County to give them the tools to create a path to building wealth, he says.

“Obviously, the emphasis is on POC because that’s where the disparity lies. Everybody in the communities we’re working with, no matter their ethnicity, is in the same boat. We want to enlighten and educate everyone, but especially those persons of color where the greatest disparity lies.”

“We need community partners to be successful. It saddens me that people are in survival mode, that people are poor and can barely meet their needs. It pains me to know someone doesn’t have the ability to meet basic needs.” — Michael Patton, MNA, President and CEO of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League

The overarching goal, Patton says, is to position them for opportunities like home ownership.

BCCF is supporting the initiative through a $12,000 grant awarded during its 2025-2026 Winter Competitive Grant cycle, says Mary Muliett, President and CEO of BCCF.

“This grant reflects a commitment to investing in community-led solutions and trusted local leadership. Our work is rooted in supporting projects that strengthen our community,” she says. “We believe SWMUL’s financial literacy initiative will equip participants with tools and skills for stable, financial empowerment.”

The rate of Black homeownership has declined to levels comparable to those following the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, says a 2024 article on the National League of Cities (NLC) website.

“According to the U.S. Census, in 2023, white homeownership rates were 73.8 percent, compared to only 49.8 percent and 45.9 percent for Hispanic and Black homeownership, respectively,” according to the article. “While addressing the racial disparity in homeownership is not the only solution to narrowing the racial wealth divide, evidence has shown that homeownership is the greatest contributing factor to disparities in education, employment, income, and familial wealth to narrowing the gap. In fact, Black and Hispanic homeowners actually derive a higher share of their wealth from owned homes than white households in most cases.”

Rebuilding Hope, Restoring Opportunities will offer five-week cohorts with 25 individuals in each throughout the year. A stipend will cover the cost of someone to run the program. Participants in each group will learn how to budget, build credit, reduce debt, and gain a better understanding of the lending process and what goes into home ownership and investment opportunities. Local professionals with expertise in these areas will work with the participants, Patton says.

“Several of the skills taught in the training build upon each other. Fiscal literacy, which includes budgeting, saving, managing personal debt, can also impact how one excels in the workplace,” Muliett says. “Financial literacy is an important driver for our community’s journey toward economic growth and stability and supports each individual and family in our community.”

Of the areas of focus, Patton says that budgeting, credit building, and debt reduction are “huge.”

With a banking background, Patton was involved in similar financial literacy work in other cities before taking over leadership of SWMUL in June.

The underserved community lacks having the education regarding finances,” he says. During a listening tour with more than 100 leaders representing different sectors in Battle Creek, he says he was hearing from them that the financial literacy initiative is a “need in this community.”

The program will focus on the Washington Heights and Post Addition neighborhoods and the area including Meacham Avenue, which Patton says are Battle Creek’s poorest communities.

Building from the ground up

Homeownership is largely viewed as the gateway to building wealth in the United States due to associated tax breaks, increased opportunities to build credit, and monthly payments that contribute to long-term generational stability, according to the NLC article.

“Hopefully, down the road as an Urban League affiliate, we will be able to build affordable homes in a year or two and revitalizing neighborhoods to where participants of our initiative have the opportunity to purchase a new home,” Patton says

SWMUL already has a partnership with Consumers Credit Union for the financial literacy program, and Patton says he is looking forward to working with other banking institutions.

“One of the largest barriers for historically marginalized communities to homeownership continues to be the lack of capital for down payment costs and costs associated with maintenance of the home. Black and Hispanic families often lack the accumulated wealth to make such payments, in contrast to white families, who are far more likely to receive inheritances or other family assistance to cover these costs,” according to the NLC article.

The knowledge that leads to the building of generational wealth has not been as readily available to POC as it has been for their white counterparts, Patton says, citing racism and discriminatory practices that come into play.

“We have the ‘haves and have nots’ situation, which is intentionally creating oppression, which causes people of color to be in the position they’re in,” he says. “There can be a number of barriers that are there and cause the community to experience what it’s experiencing. Barriers are still there. We’ve made some inroads, but what has been done is just not enough yet. We need to keep pushing from a policy standpoint and help to keep opening up our community to better understand what’s happening in those communities where People of Color lack that knowledge and opportunity.”

“Hopefully, down the road as an Urban League affiliate, we will be able to build affordable homes in a year or two and revitalizing neighborhoods to where participants of our initiative have the opportunity to purchase a new home.” — Michael Patton, MNA, President and CEO of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League

Muliett says the Urban League’s financial literacy initiative will guide local residents on practical, useful tips for managing funds and financing — banking, budgeting, credit building, debt reduction, and many others.

“In 2024, the state of Michigan signed legislation requiring the completion of personal finance curriculum for all high school students to graduate, which will benefit those students as they reach adulthood,” she says. “Some adults, however, may not have been exposed to the training and practices required to achieve financial security, especially families who may be challenged by generational poverty. This initiative aims to help break that cycle for current and future generations. With a trusted partner like SWMUL supporting, we believe community members will be readily engaged in the initiative.”

“We want to catch up adults, so they’re informed and educated and attend to financial responsibilities in a way that’s successful,” Patton says. “We all know that home ownership builds wealth, and those are assets that appreciate as opposed to buying a car, which depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot.”

Muliett says statistics from several sources show that financial stability increases in parallel for individuals who’ve received training in financial-related curriculum.

“As we strive to support the community through our work at BCCF, programs like SWMUL’s Financial Literacy Program have the potential to strengthen the well-being of all,” she says. “Our support for nonprofit partners like SWMUL is multi-layered. We provide financial assistance. We work to create connections with others in the community who may be an important resource. Ultimately, our goal is to see our nonprofit partners thrive, build capacity, and support opportunities that help their work flourish. When we are successful in supporting our partners, we help to strengthen the well-being of the whole community.

Patton says he’s grateful to BCCF for providing funding, calling it a “huge partner.”

“We need community partners to be successful,” he says. “It saddens me that people are in survival mode, that people are poor and can barely meet their needs. It pains me to know someone doesn’t have the ability to meet basic needs.”