Published: March 2014

Housing counseling helps families in crisis and prevents foreclosures

Consumer Action joined hundreds of housing advocates in urging Congress to increase federally funding for housing counseling in 2015. Housing counseling is a proven, cost-effective tool for Americans facing all sorts of housing challenges, including homeowners facing foreclosure, young families looking to purchase their first home, and seniors considering a reverse mortgage.

Nearly 500 consumer advocates wrote a letter asking Congress to increase the federal support of housing counseling to help Americans that are still being impacted by the nation's housing crisis. Nationally, foreclosures continue at more than double their pre-crisis rate and alarming rates of serious delinquency suggest we are far from out of the woods. Seven percent of all mortgages are now in foreclosure or seriously delinquent. Meanwhile, the more than 600,000 individuals and families who lost their homes to foreclosure in the last year must now transition into a rental market that is already strained as a result of the dramatic decrease in homeownership in recent years.

As we continue to recover from the housing crisis, it is imparitive that future homeowners are prepared for the responsibilities of homeownership. Pre-purchase counseling is provedn to be one of the most effective tools for preventing delinquency.

The nonprofit housing counseling agencies that receive funding through the HUD Housing Counseling Assistance and NFMC Programs provide critical services to each of these groups—current homeowners facing foreclosure, former homeowners displaced by foreclosure and others in the rental market, and first-time homebuyers—through foreclosure, pre-purchase, and rental counseling. But while the nonprofit housing counseling community is committed to serving everyone who needs counseling, the capacity to do so is dependent upon adequate funding, critical components of which are the HUD Housing Counseling Assistance and NFMC Programs.

Consumer Action urges Congress to increase funding for housing counseling; a remarkably effective tool for keeping homeowners hurt by the recession in their homes and preventing future homeowners from defaulting on their loans.

Lead Organization

National Housing Resource Center (NHRC)

More Information

For more information, please visit the NHRC website. http://www.hsgcenter.org/

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Housing counseling helps families in crisis and prevents foreclosures   (housingcounseling.pdf)