GLCU Foundation for Financial Empowerment (GLCU) is a comprehensive housing counseling agency. We provide education and counseling in the areas of financial management, tenancy, pre-purchase homeownership, post-purchase homeownership, and foreclosure intervention. Through housing counseling programming families improve their financial situation, address their housing needs, and pursue their long-term housing and financial goals.

 

GLCU’s Housing Counseling Program was established as a division of North Side Community Federal Credit Union (NSCFCU). NSCFCU was founded in 1974 by seven women, who responded to the practice of redlining in their community by ensuring equal access to capital. NSCFCU later became an industry leader for providing an alternative to predatory payday loans and second chance accounts. In 2005, NSCFCU was among 16 credit unions selected to participate in a pilot program between the U.S Department of Housing (HUD) and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. The pilot program was developed in response to the looming housing crisis. Since, 2005 counselors have served 200-1000 households annually and have participated in numerous programs to increase household and community wealth, including the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program, the Illinois Hardest Hit Fund, the City of Chicago Tax Rebate Program, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, and the Illinois Homeowner Assistance Fund. In 2019, NSCFCU merged with Great Lakes Credit Union, allowing the program to expand its service area to Illinois, Wisconsin, and most recently Indiana. Great Lakes Credit Union first emerged as a credit union for the unbanked and underbanked in the 1930s and continued to uphold the legacy of NSCFCU by providing alternatives to payday loans, second chance accounts, and a variety of credit-building products. In its effort to expand housing counseling services the credit union stood up NSCFCU’s 501c3, as GLCU Foundation for Financial Empowerment. In 2023, the Housing Counseling program moved under GLCU Foundation for Financial Empowerment.