Mobile Housing Board Awarded
$45,308 Housing Counseling Grant

The Mobile Housing Board was awarded a $45,308 grant to provide housing counseling services to residents in a six-county area. The announcement was made in Mobile recently by Cindy Yarbrough, Director of the Birmingham Field Office of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. The funding will enable the Mobile Housing Board to continue counseling families on many housing matters, including the following:

  • Renting an apartment or house,
  • Buying a home,
  • Refinancing a mortgage at a lower interest rate,
  • Preventing mortgage foreclosure,
  • Reverse mortgages,
  • Home improvement and rehabilitation,
  • Credit and debt, and
  • Energy conservation.
Housing counselors of the Mobile Housing Board assisted 1,486 people during the past fiscal year (October 2006 through September 2007). The six counties in the agency's housing counseling service area are Baldwin, Clarke, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe and Washington County.

Check Presentation Cindy Yarbrough, third from right, Director of the U.S. Housing & Urban Development's Birmingham Field Office, delivered a �big� $45,308 check to the Mobile Housing Board (MHB), symbolic of a grant that the agency received to provide housing counseling services. Others from left are MHB Property Agent Preston Denagall, MHB Housing Counselor Tyronnda Bethune, MHB Grantswriter Cathy Burden, MHB Executive Director Stevens Gregory, Ms. Yarbrough, HUD's Birmingham Field Office Liaison John Gemmill and MHB Real Estate Officer Hallet McDonough.

Overall, HUD awarded $44 million in housing counseling and counseling training grants in October. According to HUD, $41 million was awarded to 19 national and regional organizations and nearly 370 state and local housing counseling agencies. The national and regional recipients distribute much of HUD's housing counseling grant funding to community-based grassroots organizations that provide advice and guidance to low- and moderate-income families seeking to improve their housing conditions.

Grants totaling $3 million were awarded in supplemental funding for home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) counseling. These funds will provide counseling for the rapidly growing number of elderly homeowners who seek to convert equity in their homes into income that can be used for home improvements, medical costs and other expenses.

Public housing authorities and other organizations that provide housing counseling services �help families make informed choices before they take the important step of homeownership,� HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a statement released by HUD. �They also provide a service that is vital in today's mortgage market - they counsel families facing foreclosure and advise them about their options.�

To contact a HUD-Approved Housing Counseling, visit our website at www.hud.gov and click on �housing counselor� under �At Your Service� to search online, or call HUD's interactive voice response system at: (800) 569-4287.

 
Content Archived: July 11, 2011