Sylvia Alvarez, new member of UCC’s Board of Directors, has attended or watched online Unity Sunday services for some 35 years. Founder and Executive Director of the Housing and Education Alliance, Inc., a HUD certified housing counseling agency serving over 35,000 Tampa Bay area residents, Sylvia brings to this board expert management skills and strong business experience, proven assets to insure the success and continued service of UCC to the community.
Co-author of The American Nightmare: Strategies for Preventing, Surviving and Overcoming Foreclosure, a book written at the beginning of the foreclosure crisis, Sylvia, with Walter Walker Jr., details foreclosure processes, phases, options, consequences, and even post-foreclosure strategies for rebuilding credit and purchasing a home again. This definitive source for consumers facing foreclosure was endorsed by Freddie Mac and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, translated into Spanish and used by consumers and HUD counselors throughout the country.
Sylvia works tirelessly on behalf of hard working families and their housing issues. The daughter of immigrants, “I saw what joy it gave my parents to purchase a home in America,” she says. “I feel it is my responsibility to do all that I can to keep the American dream of home ownership alive and bring back the promise of America. During the foreclosure crisis, we helped 14,000 Tampa Bay families with our free foreclosure prevention programs. Sadly, because we all worked as volunteers, some for nearly 3.5 years, all staff lost our homes.”
A popular motivational speaker frequently quoted in the media on housing issues, she appears regularly on local and national English and Spanish communications sources. Through her leadership, her agency has received national recognition and many awards, including the coveted “Nonprofit of the Year” through PBS’s Be More Awards program. Sylvia has been invited to participate in DC meetings with U.S. Treasury, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, HUD, Department of Agriculture and high level staff at the White House. She is a member of JP Morgan Chase’s Community Advisory Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Consumer Advisory Board.
Sylvia has come to services at UCC since the 1980s, traveling from Tampa and Odessa, and when her parents required home care, she appreciated the opportunity of watching Sunday lessons online. With the same unbridled enthusiasm and tested management skills that have marked her exceptional track record throughout her impressive career, Sylvia approaches her new adventure as a Board member “honored to be a part of this wonderful group of people who I have admired for so many years. I hope to bring my gifts to Unity Church of Clearwater.” She loves Unity “to the moon and back.”