The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded more than $50 million in housing counseling grants to hundreds of organizations to assist families and individuals with their housing needs.
HUD’s housing counseling grants and the additional funding they leverage will assist more than 1.4 million households find housing, make more informed housing choices, or keep their current homes.
“This is a smart investment in helping families find and keep their homes,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said. “Quite simply, knowledge is power. We know that armed with the information they need, those who receive counseling services are far more successful in buying, renting or avoiding foreclosure.”
More than $47 million of the grants will directly support the housing counseling services provided by 31 national and regional organizations, six multi-state organizations, 19 State Housing Finance Agencies (SHFAs) and 199 local housing counseling agencies.
In addition, HUD is awarding $3.5 million to four national organizations to train housing counselors who will receive the instruction and certification necessary to effectively assist families with their housing needs.
National and regional agencies distribute much of HUD’s housing counseling grant funding to community-based organizations that assist low- and moderate-income families to improve their housing conditions. In addition, these larger organizations help improve the quality of housing counseling services.
Counseling improves housing outcomes for homebuyers, homeowners, and renters. Last year, HUD published research findings summarizing the impact of housing counseling has on families’ housing options and choices.
In addition, recent research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Urban Institute continues to find substantial benefits to housing counseling for families who purchase their first homes and those struggling to prevent foreclosure.
Housing counseling agencies also support fair housing by assisting borrowers in reviewing their loan documentation, to avoid potential mortgage scams, unreasonably high interest rates, inflated appraisals, unaffordable repayment terms, and other conditions that can result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default, and even foreclosure. Likewise, foreclosure prevention counseling helps homeowners facing delinquency or default employ strategies, including expense reduction, negotiation with lenders and loan servicers, and loss mitigation, to avoid foreclosure.