HUD Housing Counseling National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions Presented by Sarah Gerecke Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Housing Counseling April 4, 2013

Agenda What is HUD Housing Counseling? Impact of Housing Counseling HUDs Role How to find agencies in your area

About 2,500 nonprofit agencies nationwide are approved to provide numerous counseling services, including: What is Housing Counseling ? Pre-purchase Education Reverse Mortgage Mortgage Delinquency Financial Management Rental Assistance Homelessness Applying for Making Home Affordable Modifications Many agencies provide more services and programs, including down payment assistance, emergency utility assistance, job/interview training, daycare, food banks, homeless shelters, or managing low income housing

Goals of Housing Counselors Provide unbiased assistance to help clients resolve their housing problems or needs Provide education and one-on-one counseling Design an action plan to address barriers to housing Help clients to access community resources Monitor clients progress in meeting their housing goals Assist client to work with lenders to resolve mortgage delinquencies

HUD Office of Housing Counseling The mission of the Office of Housing Counseling is to help families to obtain, sustain and retain their homes. We will accomplish this mission through a strong network of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and counselors. Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 67 HUD staff from the HUD Single Family Program Support Division National office with staff spread across the county from Alaska to Florida Goals: To help clients assess their financial situation and achieve their housing goals. To increase public awareness of HUDs housing counseling programs. To increase the knowledge and capacity of HUDs housing counseling network. To improve the impact of housing counseling on consumers and neighborhoods nationwide.

Mortgage Delinquency Counseling 774,132 Pre-Purchase Counseling 206,188 Rental Counseling 157,458 Home Maintenance and Financial Management Counseling 83,659 Reverse Mortgage Counseling 53,170 Homeless Counseling 21,947 Education Workshops (Group Counseling) 361,057 Total Clients Served 1,657,611 Impact of Housing Counseling

Impact of Pre-purchase Counseling A recently released study of the two-year loan performance of over 18,000 pre-purchase counseling clients from the NeighborWorks America network of counseling agencies finds that those counseling clients are one-third less likely to become 90+ days delinquent in the two years since obtaining their loan than those who did not receive pre-purchase counseling (Mayer and Temkin, 2013). This study was controlled for selection bias. A Turnham and Jefferson (2012) HUD study analyzed the outcomes of 573 pre-purchase counseling clients 18 months after completing counseling and found that 35 percent of the participants became homeowners, with only 1 person falling 30 days or more behind in their mortgage payments. Study by Peter Zorn, Vice President in Freddie Macs Models, Mission and Research Division suggest that the overall delinquency rates of borrowers receiving counseling are 15 percent lower than otherwise identical borrowers not receiving counseling.

NeighborWorks® Research on Pre-Purchase Counseling Data provided in Pre-Purchase Counseling Impacts on Mortgage Performance: Empirical Analysis of NeighborWorks® Americas Experience *All with NeighborWorks Counseling data is from NeighborWorks Affiliates, not agencies that received NeighborWorks training Estimated share of loans that are 90+ days delinquent within 24 months of origination with and without NeighborWorks pre-purchase counseling Year Loan Originated First-time Homebuyers With NeighborWorks counseling* 4.70%3.10%2.00% Without NeighborWorks counseling 6.90%4.60%2.90% Difference -2.20%-1.50%-1.00% % Decline %-32.70%33.10% Repeat Borrowers With NeighborWorks counseling* 6.10%4.10%2.60% Without NeighborWorks counseling 9.00%6.00%3.90% Difference -2.80%-1.90%-1.30% % Decline-31.70%-32.40%32.90%

HUD Office of Housing Counseling The mission of the Office of Housing Counseling is to help families to obtain, sustain and retain their homes. We will accomplish this mission through a strong network of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and counselors. Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 67 HUD staff from the HUD Single Family Program Support Division National office with staff spread across the county from Alaska to Florida Goals: To help clients assess their financial situation and achieve their housing goals. To increase public awareness of HUDs housing counseling programs. To increase the knowledge and capacity of HUDs housing counseling network. To improve the impact of housing counseling on consumers and neighborhoods nationwide.

Housing Counseling Agencies seeking HUD approval submit their applications to the Office of Housing Counseling for review. Applications are reviewed using a checklist on the following major areas: Tax exempt nonprofit status Audited Financials Experience in counseling Facilities Compliance capacity Agency Work Plan Performance Reviews are performed every two to three years and re-evaluate the information provided in their initial application for approval, plus: Client Files Reviewed Updates to work plan or staff Reported Client numbers Survey Letters sent to clients Grant administration review Monitoring HUD Agencies

OHC Program Initiatives Strengthen relations and communication between HUD and housing counseling network, in order to achieve broader community impact. Encourage Housing Finance Agencies, regional and local coalitions to consider options of bonding as intermediary networks Increase the visibility of housing counseling to help consumers and strengthen the industry. Explore incorporating housing counseling into more public and private rental and mortgage programs, including FHA. Solicit comments and best practices from industry partners.

Why Partner With Housing Counseling Agencies? Prepare your clients to make sound financial decisions from an unbiased professional counselor experienced in the local housing market Receive notifications on new initiatives, scam alerts and other valuable information that comes from nonprofit impartial sources Exchange referrals and resources with agencies serving clients typically served by the NFCDCU

Partnership Models

Ways To Partner With Housing Counseling Agencies Every area has unique needs and existing collaborations to serve the public. HUD Agencies have countless initiatives to meet local needs. Use HUDs website to find agencies within your area to make contact Discuss formal and informal ways you can work with each other Refer clients! Join task forces, community development roundtables, and meetings, outreach events Join agency mailing lists for news Ask for agency counselors to present home buyer education as part of financial education courses

Contact counseling agencies by HUDs interactive voice system by calling (800) to search by zip code Receives over 2,000 calls daily Online referrals to approved housing counseling agencies are available on directly on the main page How to Find a HUD approved Agencies

The next screen takes you to a drop down of states to select your area from, or you can click on states directly on the map

The search results show agencys address, contact numbers, , languages, provided, and certified services How to Find a HUD approved Agencies

For More Information Contact counseling agencies through hud.gov at Or call (800) to search by zip code Check out our new iPhone app in the app store (search housing counseling) For grant information, training and events, counselor resources and to sign up for our listserv. Questions or comments: