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

With respect to ethnicity, 19 percent of the total population of housing counseling clients is Hispanic
and 81 percent is not Hispanic (see Exhibit 7-3 above). Data from the counseling agency survey
suggests that these clients are not evenly distributed across agencies; as shown in Exhibit 7-5, about
one-quarter (24 percent) of agencies serve a higher than average share of Hispanic clients (i.e., 20
percent or more of their clients are Hispanic), while three-quarters (76 percent) serve a lower than
average share of Hispanic clients.
Exhibit 7-5.
Distribution of Agencies by Share of Hispanic Clients
Less than 1% of clients are Hispanic
1% to less than 5% of clients are Hispanic
5% to less than 20% of clients are Hispanic
20% or more of clients are non-white
Total
Percent of
Agencies
24%
24%
28%
24%
100%
Source: Abt Associates tabulations of HUD 9902 data linked to data from the counseling agency survey.
Note: Based on survey responses of 1,101 agencies.
The types of agencies that are more likely to serve a higher than average share of Hispanic clients
(i.e., more than 20 percent of clients served are Hispanic) are not the same as those likely to serve a
majority non-white population. As shown in Exhibit 7-6, the types of agencies whose clients are
likely to be more than 20 percent Hispanic are agencies with a housing counseling mission, agencies
that primarily serve pre-purchase clients, and agencies that serve at least 5,000 clients per year.
Income
In the HUD 9902, agencies are required to report the percent of clients served that fall into the
following income categories: less than 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), 50 to 79 percent
of AMI, 80 to 100 percent of AMI, and more than 100 percent of AMI. According to HUD’s
definitions, people with incomes below 50 percent of the AMI are considered very low income, while
people with incomes between 50 and 80 percent of the AMI are low income, and people with incomes
between 80 and 120 percent of the AMI are moderate income.
Most clients that receive housing counseling services from HUD-approved agencies are very low
income or low income. As shown in Exhibit 7-7, half the clients served in 2007 had incomes below
50 percent of AMI and another 30 percent had incomes between 50 and 80 percent of AMI.
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Chapter 7. Client Characteristics and Outcomes