The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $42 million in grants to provide housing counseling for families attempting to navigate the home buying process.
According the the HUD, these “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.”
Of this money, $40 million will go directly to existing counseling agencies and organizations. The remaining $2 million will be used to train and certify individual housing counselors.
“The counseling organizations HUD supports are on the front lines in providing the full spectrum of services households need — from locating affordable rental housing, offering advice on how to become a homeowner, and preventing foreclosure,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro.
According to a report published by HUD last month, housing counseling has a considerable impact on the well-being of homebuyers, homeowners and renters. Through a combination of early intervention and hands on education, HUD reported that housing counseling increases mobility, financial literacy and related educational benefits.
According to HUD, the counselors’ main job is to help homebuyers “navigate what can be an extremely confusing and difficult homebuying process.” To do so, they will help evaluate an individual’s readiness for a purchase, train individuals struggling with credit problems and teach individuals the full range of their specific financing and payment options.
They will also assist in identifying any mortgage scams, unreasonably high interest rates, or inflated appraisals that the individual may have not been aware of.
These organizations will also serve other functions, such as helping homeless people in finding transitional housing and assisting senior citizens in securing reverse mortgages.
