Wells Fargo Brings Housing Counseling to Super Bowl™

In addition to touchdowns, halftime, and heated referee calls, Super Bowl™ LVI featured something new this year – a Spanish-language ad that promotes vital services from local nonprofit NHS Chicago (Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago) to help keep people housed and prevent foreclosure. 

The tagline, "El hogar es a donde uno pertenece (home is where you belong),” aims to break through fears of potential foreclosure and help homeowners in crisis.

The heartful message is part of an outreach campaign to better reach communities of color generously funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and facilitated by Housing Partnership Network (HPN), a national nonprofit and housing counseling intermediary to 18 agencies (such as NHS Chicago) in 14 states.

The commercial (below) aired seven times during the big game to approximately 100,000 viewers – three times during the action, three times during the pregame, and once during postgame.

As a HUD-certified Housing Counseling Agency, NHS offers solutions to keep Chicago-area residents in their homes. Since 2010, the organization has helped over 10,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure.

“For over 47 years, we have worked with community residents, government agencies, and other stakeholders, to bring the wealth-building opportunities of homeownership to communities of color. With many households still recovering from the economic impact of the pandemic, it is important for them to know resources are available,” said Anthony E. Simpkins, President and CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. “We thank the Wells Fargo Foundation and the Housing Partnership Network for their philanthropic support and innovative approach in working with agencies like ours to build counseling capacity and offer valuable counseling resources to keep homeowners in their homes, maintaining their creditworthiness and wealth-building assets.” Simpkins added.

Initially developed by another HPN member, the Minnesota Homeownership Center, versions of the commercial in eleven different languages are airing and streaming in markets across Minnesota, Illinois, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Translated languages include Spanish, French, Nepali, Farsi, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, and Thai. 

“We’re extremely proud to share some of the assets we’ve developed here in Minnesota to get the word out that foreclosure can be prevented,” said Julie Gugin, president of the Minnesota Homeownership Center. “We look forward to continuing this important work with our colleagues at HPN and across the country as our uneven economic recovery moves forward, and we are grateful to committed partners such as Wells Fargo for their support of this work.”

For advice on buying a home, defaults, foreclosures and credit issues near you, visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s national database of Housing Counseling Agencies.

Reposted in collaboration with NHS Chicago