Member Moment: Winston LaCasse
“I couldn't have done it without Opportunities. That's a fact.”
Winston LaCasse is disabled from a farming accident, when 28 tons of machinery squashed his shoulder and ribs. He cannot do any heavy work and receives Social Security and a Section 8 housing subsidy.
In 2000, Winston was offered the chance to buy a manufactured home with original mint green trim where he now lives. He was nervous about the purchase. He had no credit history, and a limited income. He owned nothing but a junky old chainsaw. But Opportunities Credit Union showed him he had an important asset. "I had always paid my rent on time," Winston says, "and always left a place cleaner than when I moved in. They took my landlords' references for five years back. That's all they needed to make me a loan.
