Housing Counseling Process Evaluation and Design of ... - HUD User

the client with lenders. The following comments from the agency survey spoke to the issue of how
time consuming delinquency client cases can be:
“…the cases that we are seeing today are much more complicated and require a great deal of
man hours to complete. In the past we have prided ourselves in the fact that we follow our
clients throughout the process. It is getting more and more difficult to do this.” (Housing
counseling agency in IL)
“[Delinquency and Default] counseling is very labor intensive and it should be realized that
these sessions take twice as long and have much more follow up and case management. No
funding is provided for discretionary budget items (admin costs, etc), and this is desperately
needed! (Housing counseling agency in MD)
Considering the total time spent in group sessions, one-on-one counseling, and case management, the
most time intensive services are for pre-purchase counseling. Those who primarily attend prepurchase
workshops receive 10 hours of services, while those who primarily receive pre-purchase
counseling, receive 8 hours of services. The second most intensive type of service is mortgage
delinquency counseling, with the typical counseling clients receiving 7 hours of services and typical
workshop clients receiving 5.7 hours. The third most intensive type of service is post-purchase
workshops, with the typical client receiving 5.7 hours of services. All other types of clients generally
receive 3 or 4 hours of services.
Pre-Purchase Education and Counseling
There is known to be significant variation in the way agencies approach the delivery of pre-purchase
homebuyer education and counseling. 34 Some agencies emphasize group sessions supported by some
amount of individual counseling. Other agencies rely primarily on one-on-one counseling. Agencies
may also channel most clients through a standard set of education and counseling services, while
others may begin by assessing a client’s individual needs to determine the appropriate mix of
education and counseling services. Some of this variation may reflect differences in the types of
clients served, with some agencies serving more clients that are ready to buy a home in the next few
months (including those who have had an offer accepted on a home and are seeking counseling to
qualify for a loan or grant), while others may primarily serve clients that will need a much longer time
to be homeownership-ready. Yet, while it well known that this diversity in approaches exists, there is
little systematic information available to document the extent of this diversity. This section presents
information gathered through the agency survey to document the range of approaches used in the
industry to provide pre-purchase education and counseling.
Use of Group Sessions and Individual Counseling
A key distinction in assisting individuals to prepare for homeownership is whether the assistance is
provided in individual or group sessions. While there are many benefits of individual counseling,
there are a variety of reasons why group sessions may be preferred. One strong rationale for group
sessions is the efficiency of serving a large number of clients in a single session. Given the
34
See, for example, McCarthy and Quercia (2000).
Chapter 6. Characteristics of Education and Counseling Services 79