Putting Needy Families On the Road to Success
Organization Helps Working Poor Buy Cars, Build Credit

By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 11, 2007

Imagine getting to work in Northern Virginia's suburbs, or picking up your children from day care before the agency starts charging late fees by the minute, or just getting groceries -- all without a car.

Now imagine buying a car while supporting a family of four on an income of no more than $40,000 a year or taking out a loan with interest as high as 30 percent.

Sophia Goulbourne, a 26-year-old mother of two who lives in Leesburg and works at a mall in Fairfax County, knows what it is like to have no car and no means of buying one. But two years ago, she discovered a car-buying program through an Oakton-based nonprofit organization that has helped her and her family move closer to financial independence.

"I could not do it on my own," said Goulbourne, who plans to pay off her $4,000 loan on a 1997 Infiniti this month, along with a smaller, more recent loan that paid for a major repair. "I didn't have the money; they gave me the money."

Northern Virginia Family Service has been participating since 1989 in a national Ways to Work program that guarantees small loans to low-income families. Many of those clients are single parents. Many have shaky credit records. Most of the loans are used to purchase cars.

The nonprofit group, in partnership with Virginia Commerce Bank, helps arrange and co-sign two-year loans of as much as $4,000 with interest rates of no more than 8 percent that allow these clients to buy cars and build good credit ratings. The group also offers classes to teach clients about managing their household finances.

In fact, the national organization behind the program said that while providing low-income families with private transportation is important in the suburban age, the greatest benefit of the program may be the rehabilitation of its clients' credit.

"Initially, it's all about the mobility," said Jeff Faulkner, president of Milwaukee-based Ways to Work. "Ultimately, it's all about the loan."

For example, while studies show that the purchase of a car enhances a poor family's income, cleaning up a person's credit history can also have a direct, long-term impact on his or her job prospects. That's because many employers now conduct credit checks on job applicants as part of the vetting process, Faulkner said.

"It becomes determinative of your employment," he said.

Teaching clients how to handle their finances and rebuilding their credit ratings with small loans also provides a practical way of allowing them to return to the commercial lending markets as savvy consumers who can improve their lives.

Faulkner said he likes to view the program as an American version of the "micro-loans" pioneered for people in the Third World by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus's Grameen Bank. That program began 40 years ago with $27 loans to furniture makers in Bangladesh.

Ways to Work originated in Minneapolis in 1984 as a loan program backed by the McKnight Foundation, a philanthropic organization in Minnesota.

Although the national organization originally made interest-free loans and seldom moved to repossess vehicles from delinquent borrowers, they have found the program works better since making it more like the real world: Customers pay interest, and if they miss payments regularly, their cars may be taken from them.

A study by the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning in Philadelphia found that the program helped clients increase their take-home pay an average 41 percent. Clients also reported that obtaining a car allowed them to devote more time to education and job training. They also found more time to participate in community and church activities or take part in after-school events with their children.

In 2006, the Ways to Work program generated more than $5 million in loans in 21 states. The commonwealth has three programs run by local agencies in Oakton, Lynchburg and Norfolk. There is none in the District or Maryland, although the national organization is setting up a program in Baltimore, Faulkner said.

Sharon LeGrande, a financial services program manager with Northern Virginia Family Service, said more than 200 people in Northern Virginia have gotten the loans since 1989. In 2006, 24 people took advantage of the nonprofit group's car loan program, compared with 30 the previous year.

To qualify for Northern Virginia Family Service, applicants must live in Northern Virginia, be employed and fall within the guidelines of a low-income household with children.

Northern Virginia Family Service reviews each application and backs each bank loan for qualifying clients. The repayment rate for the national program is 87 percent. The nonprofit group also works with local dealerships to help clients find a suitable car.

Goulbourne said she had encountered the Catch-22 familiar to many low-income families: She needed a car for work, but she needed a better job to be able to afford a car.

"I couldn't afford to go to work and pay for day care," she said.

Before buying her first car, Goulbourne had relied on a taxi service -- paid for by Loudoun County's Department of Social Services -- that shuttled low-income clients to their workplaces. Occasionally, however, the taxi arrived late for Goulbourne, and she was slapped with $10-a-minute late fees at her children's county-run day care, she said.

Things changed when Goulbourne bought an Infiniti with 120,000 miles on it with the loan she took out two years ago. She now works as an assistant manager at After Hours Formalwear store in the Dulles Town Center mall, a step up from working as a sales clerk at an outlet in Leesburg.

Buying the car made the advance possible because she was able to put in more hours at the outlet, which led to a promotion. That led to a new job, and then a second used car for her husband, Musa, 29, who works at a Wal-Mart in Leesburg. And now, with the cars, she is on time more often, allowing her to avoid those steep day-care fees.

A few months ago, Goulbourne had to take out an $800 loan to pay for repairs to the car. But she hopes to pay that off, and the remaining balance on her car, with money she expects to receive from an income-tax refund.

"Then I'll work on my new car payment," she said, referring to the used Nissan Altima her husband drives.

Northern Virginia Family Service has two offices in Prince William County, at 2200 Opitz Blvd., Suite 100, Woodbridge, 703-490-3646; and 9842 Business Way, Manassas, 703-392-4901.