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

Trends in HUD Funding
Interestingly, the total volume of counseling clients has not changed dramatically since 2005, but the
mix of clients has changed tremendously. These trends may reflect the fact that counseling agencies
have a fairly fixed capacity for assisting clients and so their client mix changes to reflect changes in
demand for their assistance. In fact, it seems quite likely that the growth in overall counseling
volumes during the 1990s was driven in large part by growth in funding for these services. While
most of the increased support for housing counseling both from lenders and from HUD was focused
on pre-purchase counseling, it is clear from Exhibit 2-1 that renter, homeless, and post-purchase
counseling also expanded rapidly during the decade.
Exhibit 2-3 shows trends in HUD funding for counseling since the 1970s. After remaining stable at
about $3.5 million during the 1980s, beginning in the early 1990s HUD counseling funding began to
increase steadily. Between 1991 and 1993 funding averaged about $8 million per year. By 1998
annual funding had reached $20 million and stayed around that level through fiscal year 2002.
Beginning in 2003, HUD funding for housing counseling increased sharply again, to $40 million.
Funding remained around $40 million through 2007, but increased to $50 million in 2008.
Exhibit 2-3. HUD Appropriation for Housing Counseling 1969-2008
60
50
( )
Annual Appropriation Millions
40
30
20
10
0
19
69
19
72
19
75
19
78
19
81
1
984
198
7
19
90
19
93
19
96
19
99
20
02
2
005
2008
Fiscal Year
Source: HUD administrative data on history of housing counseling appropriations.
While hard to document, it seems likely that the increases in counseling client volumes are strongly
related to trends in HUD funding. The near tripling of HUD funding between 1994 and 2002 was
Chapter 2. Overview of the Housing Counseling Industry 13