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

Forms of Assistance for Mortgage Delinquency Clients
Agencies have a variety of ways in which they can assist delinquent clients, including providing
counseling on a variety of topics and linking clients to legal and financial assistance. The agency
survey asked agencies to identify the forms of assistance they offered to their delinquent clients. As
shown in Exhibit 6-13, almost all agencies provided budget and debt counseling (93 percent) and
advocacy with lenders and servicers (93 percent). A sizeable majority of agencies (69 percent) also
provide legal assistance, either directly or through referral to other agencies. Many agencies also
reported being able to provide direct assistance to resolve the delinquency either through providing
assistance with refinancing to a new loan (53 percent), or providing financial assistance to meet
mortgage payments (31 percent) or emergency home repair needs (15 percent). In their comments on
the survey, several agencies noted that more of this type of assistance is needed:
“Clients that are past due need the most help. Counseling alone will not help, financial
assistance and, most importantly, the mortgage companies who helped create the problems
need to work with the clients to modify the loans to make it affordable for the homeowners...”
(Housing stabilization agency in FL)
“It seems an impossible task to help all of the clients currently in need of financial assistance
to keep their homes. We need some other financial resources to be made available at this
time to assist the client. Too many people are suffering from having refinanced from a fixed
rate mortgage to an adjustable rate. Pre-mortgage counseling should have been made
mandatory for borrowers in this situation.” (Anti-poverty agency in NJ)
Chapter 6. Characteristics of Education and Counseling Services 93