Mychelle* has known about Clarifi for years: As a social worker in the Tri-State area, she’s referred many of her own clients to the Philadelphia-based nonprofit for financial and housing guidance.
In 2024, Mychelle referred herself to Clarifi as she sought to buy a home and prepare for retirement. The first step: Understanding her credit and creating a plan to pay off any debt.
“I was surprised my credit score was as high as it was,” she said after meeting with her counselor. “I knew I’d be able to purchase a home.”
Before Clarifi, Mychelle didn’t know she could get a free credit report every year. She didn’t know the best strategies for paying off debt.
Through Clarifi’s pre-purchase counseling, she learned about different loan types, how to navigate the mortgage application process, and where to access downpayment assistance. Mychelle and her counselor also built a budget for maintaining her future home and preventing foreclosure.
“I didn’t know how much help I would be able to get,” she said.
Part of the Community
Alongside technical (and moral) support from her counselor, Mychelle found her dream home in Delaware County: A 1944 brick townhouse in a ‘Dennis the Menace’-type neighborhood—tree-lined and quiet, kids playing in the streets, idyllic green lawns. After touring the home, she determined it checked enough boxes to put an offer in.
Becoming a homeowner was, in Mychelle’s words, “exasperating” at times. Every day she needed to sign a new document and turn in more paperwork, all while renewing her social work license and serving her clients. But the endless phone calls, emails, and signatures paid off when she closed on her home in February 2025.
“Of course, no place is perfect, but I am elated,” she said.
If I wasn’t sure of something, I’d call my Clarifi counselor. She was so warm and went the extra mile, like I do with my clients. It’s hard to find people who have a real interest in you as a person.
-Mychelle, Clarifi client
At first, Mychelle was nervous about moving back to her birthplace: Growing up, her mom had been one of the first African American teachers in Delaware County, so she remembered the area being segregated.
“In a thousand years I would have never thought to live in Delaware County [again],” she said.
But when a neighbor cut Mychelle’s grass the first week she moved in, and when another called the fire department to check out her carbon monoxide alarm (the sound turned out to be for a dead battery), she felt like part of the community.
‘I’m helping other people’
Months after closing, Mychelle struggled to believe she was finally a homeowner. She didn’t always have a stable income or housing in her life, like the year her family was evicted after her car broke down.
“You can’t get to work, you can’t get paid, and then things happen,” Mychelle said.
She had lived in the state of Delaware but worked in Pennsylvania as an independent contractor at the time. Her car was her lifeline, but she couldn’t get it fixed in time to catch up on rent.
Mychelle ended up living in her car outside the apartment her family was evicted from. She eventually found a shelter to stay in, her kids and 2-month-old grandson living with family and friends while she got back on track financially.
“I know how it is to be in a shelter,” she said. “I know how it is to not have your own place.”
As a Clarifi client, Mychelle now uses her home buying experience to empower her own clients, and she even helps them prepare for their first pre-purchase counseling session.
“I’m helping other people get houses,” Mychelle said. “I’m helping other people find money for mortgages. And now I can tell them I’ve gone through it myself and purchased a home, and they can do the same thing.”
*Name has been changed to protect the client’s privacy.