reflecting on aaron William's award winning career

Last month, one of AHCOPA’s most seasoned counselors, Aaron Williams, happily retired. His guidance, expertise and camaraderie will be greatly missed! Before Aaron left, I wanted to pick his brain one last time and honor his years of service with an in-depth interview. He’s a social butterfly, so below is a summary of all the things Aaron had to say during his interview. ​

Aaron Williams holding his PHFA Best Housing Counselor Award

Career Summary
Aaron enthusiastically worked as a housing counselor for 18 years! Before his career in housing counseling, Aaron worked at PHH mortgage for 12 years, the last 5 years he was a mortgage underwriter. In 2007, in the lead up to the notorious housing market crash, he was nervous about the increase of loans that did not require income and asset verification. Seeing the writing on the wall, PHH mortgage wanted to downsize. So when they offered a severance package to concerned employees, Aaron took it. At the time, he had a mortgage and young children, so he made sure to have 6 months of expenses saved.

Three months later, he was hired by Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Delaware Valley, which is now called Clarifi. Aaron laughs, recounting that the job interviewer was hesitant to hire him because he had worked in the mortgage industry. Luckily, one of his references was a friend of the interviewer who said "If you don't hire this person, you're crazy.” Aaron was able to offer valuable knowledge to the counseling agency, which helped them serve their clients in the aftermath of the 2008 housing crash. “It was a very bad time,” Aaron recalls, “We were about to see 1930 all over again. It was that bad.”
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While housing counseling is incredibly important, housing counseling agencies are non-profit organizations that often face funding issues and budget cuts. Because of this, Aaron had to deal with layoffs in 2018 and 2020. Luckily for both Aaron and AHCOPA, in November of 2020, he was hired by us! Three years later, Aaron received a Best Housing Counseling Specialist Award from Pennsylvania Housing and Finance Agency (PHFA)! 

Career Highlight
When asked what the highlight of his career was, Aaron said receiving the PHFA award and a thoughtful call from one of his former clients. “Getting this award [PHFA Award],” says Aaron, “That was the biggest thing that ever happened to me. No really. Getting that award basically validated me, validated my work. I'm very into what I do. I'm very passionate about my work and I really care about the clients I work with.”

The thoughtful call came from a single mother of two young boys. Aaron explains, “I was raised by a single mom. So I relate to that very, very, very well. I love it when I see a single mom with two kids make it, get their own house.” This client had closed on her house around Thanksgiving, and called Aaron around Christmas to thank him. She had bought a live Christmas tree for the first time and her boys happily took turns watering it daily. She said she never would have been able to do it without Aaron. He told her, “Thank you very much for that, but the truth of the matter is, I didn't do anything. You did everything. I mean, I told you what to do, but you saved up the money. You worked with your real estate agent. You understood what the mortgage company was doing. You paid down your credit card debt. You did this! You! You! You!”

Aaron's Parting Message
“I was always taught as a little kid that ‘You’ve got to do twice as much in order to be recognized for half as much of the stuff you've done, because of who you are.’ So my entire life in any job that I do, I always try to do the best of my ability, and sometimes above and beyond my ability. I can sit here and say I can sleep at night, knowing that I did the best I could do for my clients."

Aaron always has nuggets of wisdom to share, many of which he credited to his father. But, in explaining why he didn’t want a big retirement party he quoted Babe, the movie about a talking pig. “You're not going to get a lot of pats on the backs... 17 years before I got there…[Aaron pointed to the PHFA award] That's what I'm taking, that says ‘Well done’. I don't know if you ever saw that movie Babe, ‘Well done pig’…Me getting there, that was like ‘Well done, Aaron, well done.’”

Ken Bigos presenting Aaron Williams a gift at Aaron's surprise retirement party.

Bon Voyage!
Aaron claims that in February, he’ll go into hibernation. I do not believe that will happen. He’s dedicated his life to service, and he’s not ready to stop, at least not yet. He already promised his pastor that he’ll help create a financial literacy program for their Lutheran church. Aaron plans to fully retire in paradise and has his heart set on Panama. 
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I am proud to have worked alongside Aaron! In his farewell letter he summarized our time working together, “all of this only goes to prove that Boomers & Gen Z can get along!” It’s bittersweet to see him leave, but he has worked hard to earn a relaxing retirement. Congratulations Aaron Williams!

Naara Silva

Naara serves at AHCOPA as a second year AmeriCorps VISTA in the Housing Action Corps ​