Swope Health announces a new edition of its podcast, One on One with Swope Health, featuring Tenesia Brown, director of By Purpose Productions.
Eric Wesson, founder and publisher of The Next Page KC, a newspaper focused on the Black community, hosts the show’s conversations with Kansas Citians about issues of importance to the community’s health and wellbeing.
By Purpose Productions is an organization focused on providing financial literacy and homeownership education to help urban core families and individuals build small businesses and become homeowners.
Brown describes herself as a mom, grandmother, widower, and community leader. Growing up in Kansas City, her family moved a lot, she said, and this fact led her to appreciate homeownership and dedicate herself to helping others with the same goal.
Brown hosts an annual event for potential homebuyers to showcase available homes as well as provide connections between homebuyers and vendors, lenders, credit coaches and other resources.
The 2025 Spring Urban Core Home and Bus tour will be held April 26 at the By Purpose Productions headquarters at 5737 Swope Parkway. The free and family-friendly event kicks off with registration starting at 10:15 a.m., and a homebuyers’ seminar at 11 a.m. The bus tour, visiting nine to 10 homes available for sale, starts at 1 p.m.
The event includes a community mixer with a DJ, food, raffles and a kids’ zone. Banks and lenders will offer on-site pre-approvals for loans to qualified individuals at the event.
Register in advance for the free event, which is co-sponsored by the City of Kansas City’s Neighborhood Development Fund.
Brown started the event in 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Her goal is to create a thousand Black and Brown homeowners in Kansas City – she currently has assisted 880 new homeowners.
The biggest hurdles to home ownership are fear, lack of knowledge, and lack of credit scores, she said. This event can help people overcome fears with education and assistance to navigate the pathway to homeownership. With coaching, potential buyers can learn how to budget, manage debt, and build a plan of action.
“Bad credit is expensive,” Brown says. She notes that your paycheck and debt determine what house you can afford. “You may not be able to afford the house you want,” she said, “but you can get started.”
She also discusses renting, the housing shortage, home renovations, and more. She stresses that while making good decisions depends on each individual’s situation, there are resources to assist everyone.
Listen to the full conversation: https://youtu.be/E-w-iq-zVqM
