Paula Brkich, Lending and Community Development Program Director
Ms. Brkich
joined HOPE in June of 2013. Her work as Lending and Community Development
Program Director will focus on developing innovative ways to assist communities
to restore neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, especially
those most damaged by improperly maintained vacant properties, with an emphasis
on turning distressed neighborhoods into communities of choice for all. She has
been involved in the housing industry throughout her career, most recently as a
Housing Counselor at DuPage Homeownership Center, where she counseled hundreds
of first-time homebuyers, and homeowners struggling to keep their homes as a
result of the economic recession. As a result of her work, DHOC achieved
recognition from Illinois Housing Development Authority as Housing Counseling
Agency of the year, and was ranked 2nd in the state among agencies providing
Hardest Hit counseling to Illinois homeowners struggling with unemployment.
Prior to working at DHOC, Ms. Brkich managed the Homeownership Housing
Counseling Center and the Housing Resource Center as Housing Specialist for
Bethel New Life, a community development organization on the west side of
Chicago, where she counseled homebuyers, renters, and assisted in real estate
development projects as well as co-wrote the financial literacy program. Ms.
Brkich began her career at Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council as
Housing Specialist and later Program Director of the Center for Integrated
Living. Through her work counseling buyers who wished to move into suburbs
where their race was underrepresented, the County school district was able to
realize savings of $3 million in the costs of busing students for desegregation
purposes. She is an alumna of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she
majored in Geography and Geology. She is a past President of the Wisconsin
Metro Audubon Society, and she is proud to serve currently on the Board of
Directors of DuPage Habitat for Humanity.
