Brenda Muhammad walked into the Syracuse Financial Empowerment Center seven months ago hoping to reduce her credit debt and increase her savings.

Muhammad is now one of about 240 clients the center has assisted since its opening in July 2019. The center, run by the city of Syracuse, offers one-on-one financial counseling to any Syracuse resident, regardless of income level.

Next month, Muhammed will likely attend her last counseling session with the FEC.

“The FEC helped me to understand how I was handling money and different ways that I could make my situation better,” Muhammad said. “Since my first meeting, I have reduced my credit debt, increased my savings and accomplished quite a few of the goals I set.”

The city created the FEC to address concentrated poverty in Syracuse and to educate the community about credit and budgeting, said Karen Schroeder, chief communications officer at Home HeadQuarters, one of the nonprofits that help fund the center. The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund also provides support to the FEC.

In total, the center has helped its clients increase their savings by $46,403 and decrease their debt by $81,875, according to the most recent data provided by the center. Twenty-one clients have increased their credit score by 35 points or more.

“I didn’t want to leave this world in debt,” Muhammad said. “I just wanted to be able to go on trips, visit my grandchildren or buy a piece of property, and I had to have a good financial standing to do that.”

The center has four financial counselors stationed throughout the city who offer assistance with credit score, debt, savings and banking. Unlike many other “credit fix” companies and workshops that require membership fees and less personalized assistance, the FEC is free and education-based, said Kazmira Pitzrick, an FEC counselor.

By the end of their first session, clients create a set of financial goals for themselves. Clients can return to the center as many times as they want and often continue to use the center on a month-to-month basis, Pitzrick said.

The center’s main goal is to take away the fear that comes with financial struggle and present it as something that can easily be changed before it gets out of one’s control, said Maarten Jacobs, director of community prosperity at the Allyn Family Foundation, a partner nonprofit.

“There are going to be tons of stories that we will never know about how [the FEC] got people on the right path,” Jacobs said. “So for every success story we hear, I’m sure there will be five more that are just the same.”

Although many publicly funded financial services only address a certain income bracket, the FEC was created to assist any Syracuse resident, Pitzrick said. The clients who visit the center represent a wide range of income levels, she said.

Of the clients helped, 77% are full-time employees and 34% are already homeowners, per the data. 55% of clients are black, 9% are Hispanic and 67% are females.

The FEC is continuing to expand its counselors and locations, Schroeder said, and will improve Syracuse’s overall economic health by helping residents have more money to spend on important goods and services.

“Giving people knowledge on these things is truly what puts people in a better place and what can propel them further,” Schroeder said.

Published on January 15, 2020 at 10:25 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss