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

To the extent that housing counseling is providing benefits that exceed its costs—which may yet be
an open question—then the funding for counseling from all sources, including HUD, would have to
increase by a factor of as much as 10 or as little as 2 to make counseling available for all low-income
first-time homebuyers.
The opinions gathered as part of this study indicate that funds are primarily needed for program
operations and staff training. In addition, there is also a need for additional funding for the housing
and social service needs of clients, but that is a separate issue from the question of funding for
counseling services themselves. In their comments on the survey, fielded in late fall 2007, agencies
reported feeling particularly stretched to meet an increasing demand for foreclosure prevention
counseling within their existing budgets. These concerns should be largely mitigated by the $336
million in grants funded by Congress through NeighborWorks® America and awarded to
intermediaries, SHFAs, and local counseling agencies starting in February 2008. However,
responding to a more than 400 percent increase in funding for the industry will be challenging—as
will the need for agencies to adjust to a much lower level of funding once the market returns to more
normal conditions. As discussed in the next section, agencies are currently struggling with building
capacity to deliver foreclosure prevention counseling to respond to tremendous consumer demand.
At the same time, there is no expectation that this increased level of Congressional funding for
housing counseling will continue when the current foreclosure crisis is over. Given the uncertainty in
the public funding of the industry, the ability of agencies to take advantage of new funding when they
come up has much to do with the resources available for staff training and retraining in different types
of counseling. As these organizations put it:
“Funding is a major challenge so agencies can be properly staffed and adequately trained in
more than one area. Affiliates need staff that can do multiple areas and funds for new topics
and staff training.” (SHFA)
“Organizations need the ability to adapt to local needs and rely on steady, consistent funding
to hire, train, and keep competent staff.” (Intermediary)
“Stability of funding is a problem. [Our SHFA] sees a consistent number of people in its
training program, but staff turnover exists. Every few years, agencies experience staff
turnover and have new people to educate. Therefore, funding for training needs to be
consistent and be able to cover the ongoing need.” (SHFA)
“Agencies are very adaptable to what the industry or consumers are asking for, provided there
is funding. They are very wary of building capacity without a strong assurance that funding
will be available.” (Intermediary)
Ideally, intermediaries, SHFAs, and agencies would like to see more sustained and dependable
sources of funding that would allow agencies to build substantial capacity in each of the counseling
specializations over time. As a result, there is currently much interest in the industry, as there has
been for several years, in finding new sources of funding for counseling services that can support the
industry and increase the role of the private sector. However, organizations that fund and provide
housing counseling have very diverse opinions as to which entities should increase their funding of
the industry and how.
Chapter 9. Policy Considerations 157