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

Exhibit 3-4.
Counseling Specialization
40%
34%
30% 28%
Percent of Agencies
20%
10%
6%
9%
24%
0%
Pre-purchase Post-purchase Pre- and Rental or No
Post-purchase Homeless Specialization
Source: Abt Associates survey of HUD-approved counseling agencies and Abt Associates tabulations of HUD
9902 data.
Notes:
Agencies are categorized as specializing in one of four types of counseling (pre-purchase, post-purchase, pre-
and post-purchase, rental or homeless) when at least 80 percent of their clients receive that type of counseling.
Agencies that do not have at least 80 percent of their clients receiving one of the four types of counseling are
categorized as “no specialization.”
Based on survey responses of 1,156 agencies.
The extent to which agencies specialize in one or another type of housing counseling is related in part
to their organizational mission. For example, as shown in Exhibit 3-5, we find that agencies with a
primary mission of housing counseling are most likely to specialize in pre-purchase counseling. This
makes sense given than many of these organizations were founded in an era when HUD and the
Federal government placed major emphasis on increasing the national homeownership rate. By
contrast, agencies with a social service mission or that focus on legal assistance are most likely either
to serve a mix of both homeownership and non-homeownership clients or to specialize in serving
rental or homeless clients. These agencies have also typically been in business for longer than the
housing counseling-focused agencies, with most founded prior to 1980.
Chapter 3. Characteristics of Counseling Agencies 29