About Us

The Spanish Coalition for Housing (SCH) is the lead agency helping Latino families with the housing needs in the greater Chicagoland area. Spanish Coalition for Housing was created in 1966. The mission of Spanish Coalition for Housing is to provide comprehensive counseling, education and housing resources necessary for housing product consumers to develop competence and responsibility in meeting their financial and housing needs, provide the necessary information and assistance to renters and homeowners, enable them to avoid re delinquencies, mortgage defaults and foreclosures, aggressively market available resources; to all Spanish speaking persons and others who require advocacy to which ensures that they have equitable opportunity to access resources.

Spanish Coalition for Housing's beginnings were the result of a broad coalition of groups from Chicago's North side and South side that came together in the early 1960's to address issues facing the Latino community. The two main issues that emerged were employment and housing. At the time, Latinos were facing difficulty obtaining entry-level jobs and accessing education. Latinos were also facing redlining from banks and difficulty in getting loans approved due to language barriers and lack of information. Two working groups were formed, the Jobs Coalition and the Housing Coalition. The Jobs Coalition was successful in obtaining commitments from Illinois Bell to hire more Latinos while the Housing Coalition participated in organizing efforts and held regular meetings with FHA, HUD and the City of Chicago Department of Urban Renewal. Although the group tried to stay together, it was clear that there were different priorities for the North side and the South side. The issues with jobs were a pressing in the South side while the North side was facing housing issues due to the riots in Humboldt Park. Eventually both groups formed their own organization, Spanish Coalition for Jobs in the South side and Spanish Coalition for Housing in the North side.