Residential PACE Loans Backfired in California and Missouri. Will Your City Avoid the Same Fate?

Event Resources

  • PACE: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) 
    A great video from John Oliver explaining how PACE, a program meant to pay for environmentally-friendly homerenovations, is fundamentally flawed and can put people at risk of losing their homes. 
  • Ygrene: What is PACE?
    An informational webpage about PACE loans from Ygrene, the administrator of the Ohio program. 

Panelist

Molly Schnoke, Project Manager
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs,
Cleveland State University

Molly Schnoke is the Project Manager with the Center for Community Planning & Development of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. She joined the College in 2006. Molly has experience in managing and coordinating research projects in program evaluation and survey research. Molly also oversees the Unger Program which serves to support and foster economic and community development through independent research and civic education and engagement.

Molly has worked with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program to monitor and report on work taking place around regional economic strategies for Northeast Ohio. In addition to her work with the Center, Molly currently oversees the Levin College Forum Program. The Forum brings together the university and the community to address critical public policy issues that impact Northeast Ohio, the state, and the nation.

Jeremy Kohler,
Reporter, ProPublica



Jeremy Kohler is a St. Louis-based reporter covering issues in Missouri and the Midwest. He came to ProPublica in January 2021 from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he worked for more than 20 years. Kohler previously worked as a reporter for the Gloucester County Times, Trentonian and Courier-Post newspapers in New Jersey. He has also served as an adjunct journalism instructor at Washington University since 2003.

Steve Sharpe,
Staff Attorney
National Consumer Law Center

Steve Sharpe is a Staff Attorney at the National Consumer Law Center focusing on foreclosures and mortgage lending. He represented homeowners at the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC. and started his career in 2005 at Indiana Legal Services with a Skadden fellowship focused on representing borrowers with predatory loans.  Steve is a contributing author of National Consumer Law Center’s Mortgage Servicing and Loan Modifications, Home Foreclosures, and Truth in Lending legal treatises.  He is a cohort member of the Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Institute and a Consumer Fellow with the American Bar Associates Consumer Financial Services Committee. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington.

Antoinette Smith, Director of Housing and Financial Counseling, Empowering and Strengthening Ohio's People

Antoinette Smith is the Director of Housing and Financial Counseling for ESOP (Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People) where she is oversees all Housing Counseling program and reporting. Antoinette has more than two decades’ experience of direct service for clients who present with multiple needs related to finances, housing, and health. Her work requires managing teams and projects, as well as collaboration with numerous departments and external community partners. She is a HUD-certified counselor, life coach, board member of Journey of Hope, and founder of Linking Your Life, a personal development company.

Frank Ford
Chair, Greater Cleveland Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council

Frank Ford serves as the Chair of the Greater Cleveland Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council (VAPAC). He is a licensed attorney who has worked in the field of community development for 40 years. Mr. Ford was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1981and in the State of Colorado in 1994. His work with communities has included housing development, commercial retail development, organizational development, human capital development and applied research. Mr. Ford graduated from Kenyon College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and received his Juris Doctor Degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.